In Morocco, King Mohammed VI said he wanted to settle definitively the issue of Moroccan minors in an irregular situation in Europe.
The monarch says he is ready to work with European countries and the European Union to resolve this issue. The announcement comes as Spain faces an influx of minors, mostly young Moroccans, into the enclave of Ceuta, causing a major crisis between the two Mediterranean countries.
Morocco is ready to “accept the return of unaccompanied minors duly identified” according to an official statement from the Moroccan authorities. For the king, these are blockages due to “ complex procedures in European countries” that undermine the repatriation process.
Nearly 10,000 candidates for exile, among them at least 1,500 minors, entered the Spanish enclave of Ceuta located in northern Morocco in mid-May.
Cooperation and repatriation mechanisms have already been put in place with certain countries, notably France and Spain, but only several dozen minors have returned to Morocco.
Blackmail, according to Spain
Rabat had relaxed its border controls for its part, in retaliation for Madrid’s decision to welcome the leader of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali to allow him to be treated.
For Spain, it is blackmail: “when minors are used as an instrument to violate the territorial borders of Spain, it is unacceptable”, according to the Spanish Minister of Defense Margarita Robles.
Heard by a Spanish judge on Tuesday, June 1, no measure was taken against the leader of the Sahrawi separatists, targeted by two complaints about “torture” and “genocide”. He, therefore, has the right to leave Spain if he wishes, which Morocco fears the most, which considers him a war criminal. The leader of the Sahrawi separatists who will leave Spain in the evening, we learned Tuesday evening from the Spanish government.
