RABAT, 12 November 2003 — Morocco is to set up two government bodies which will crack down on networks that help Africans emigrate illegally to Europe, King Mohammed VI has been quoted as saying by the MAP news agency. “People trafficking constitutes a fundamental breach of human dignity and the most basic human rights,” the monarch was quoted by MAP as saying late Monday during a government working session on emigration.
The distress of would-be immigrants to Europe and their hopes for a better life are “exploited unscrupulously by criminal networks,” said Mohammed. He announced the creation of two high-level institutions - the Directorate of Migration and Border Surveillance and the Migration Observatory, both administered by the Interior Ministry - which will be tasked with fighting the problem of people trafficking.
The Directorate of Migration will develop a national strategy for fighting people trafficking networks and for monitoring Morocco’s borders. It will have bureaus in seven cities in the North African kingdom, which is separated from Spain by the narrow Strait of Gibraltar.
Those cities are Tangiers, Tetouan, Al-Hoceima, Nador, Larache, Oujda and El-Ayoun, all known to be starting points for would-be illegal immigrants to Europe. The Migration Observatory will update national statistics on migration and make recommendations to the authorities to help the fight against illegal emigration.
Thousands of people from Morocco and other African countries try every year to cross the Mediterranean and gain access to the more affluent countries of the European Union. Many die, or are caught by coastguards and border police, as they try to cross in small boats, often leaving from Morocco and heading for Spain.
The move to tighten control of the North African country’s extensive frontier with Algeria and its Mediterranean and Atlantic coastlines will be directed by the Interior Ministry, the official MAP news agency said.
Thousands of illegal migrants from Morocco and sub-Saharan African countries reach Spain by sea each year after leaving from Moroccan beaches, often on unsafe vessels.
In 2002, the Spanish civil guard intercepted 13,500 would-be immigrants via these routes. More than half of them had been attempting to reach Spain’s Canary Islands.
Illegal immigration is a point of friction between Madrid and Rabat, with Morocco arguing that financial aid from the European Union would allow it to tackle it more effectively.
Spanish Foreign Minister Ana Palacio yesterday welcomed the creation of the new agencies, according to MAP. The move followed one of the worst accidents involving migrants to southern Spain this year.
Meanwhile, Libyan authorities have arrested 104 people from neighboring Egypt who were seeking to make their way illegally into Europe from the southern Mediterranean country, the official JANA news agency said in Tripoli yesterday. The arrests, which also included a handful of Ghanaians and Nigerians, took place Saturday along the coast near the Libyan capital.
Libya has been accused, most notably by Italy, of being a funnel for illegal immigrants from Africa. Italy is regularly faced with the arrival of people on the islands of Sicily, Lampedusa and Pantelleria, all of which lie 400 kilometers or less from the North African nation.
