The Moroccan authorities reported, during the weekend, two migrants found dead drowned following a shipwreck. In addition, more than 200 exiles were intercepted in southern Morocco as they prepared to embark on the Spanish archipelago of the Canaries.
The departures of exiles from Morocco continue and continue to generate tragedies. “The sea rejected two corpses of candidates for illegal immigration after the capsizing of a boat,” said the Moroccan news agency MAP on Sunday, March 27, without further details.
The weekend was also marked by the arrest, in the south of the country, of 236 migrants who were trying to board a ship to reach the Spanish archipelago of the Canaries.
Several police operations, carried out on Friday, March 25, and Saturday, March 26 in the provinces of Tarfaya (south) and Laâyoune, the main city of Western Sahara, made it possible to seize three inflatable boats, two motor sculls, and cans of gasoline.
According to MAP, the Moroccan security services “have recently intensified operations to control attempts at irregular immigration in the region”.
An intensification that coincides with the diplomatic warming between Rabat and Madrid, after nearly a year of estrangement between the two countries around the question of Western Sahara. Spain has decided to renounce its neutrality on this file and the president of the Spanish government, the socialist Pedro Sanchez, sent, on March 18, a letter to King Mohammed VI in which he aligns himself with the Moroccan theses.
The Moroccan “autonomy” plan for Western Sahara is “the most serious, realistic and credible basis for the resolution of the dispute”, writes the Spanish leader, welcoming “the serious and credible efforts of Morocco within the framework of the United Nations to find a mutually acceptable solution. Enough to “consider a clear and ambitious roadmap in order to sustainably establish the bilateral partnership”, reacted the Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in a press release, reports Le Monde.
Pressure way
Morocco, from where most of the migrants leave for Spain, has been regularly accused of using illegal immigration as a means of pressure on Madrid.
Notably in May 2021, when thousands of migrants managed to enter the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, taking advantage of a relaxation of Moroccan border controls. Many observers had seen in this episode a gesture by Rabat, in retaliation for the admission, to a Spanish hospital, of the leader of the Polisario Front Brahim Ghali, then sick with Covid-19.
Madrid’s change of position also allowed the resumption of returns of irregular migrants present on its territory to Morocco. Repatriation flights for Moroccan exiles had been suspended since April 2021, for health reasons. Deportations could resume at a rate similar to what was practiced in the past: four weekly flights operated by Royal Air Maroc, with 20 exiles onboard. That is 80 people repatriated per week, in total.
According to the latest figures from the Spanish Ministry of the Interior, more than 40,000 migrants, mostly from Morocco, arrived in 2021 by the sea in the country, as well as in the Balearic and Canary archipelagos.
