Morocco is claiming new success in lowering the number of migrant crossings into Europe as the country works with its northern neighbor, Spain, in securing more European funding for curbing migration.
Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita said the number of crossings dropped 40 percent compared with the same month last year along the western Mediterranean route, which last year became the main entry point into Europe.
Departures have dropped significantly since the beginning of this year, with Rabat claiming that its security forces have dismantled 60 trafficking networks and stopped more than 30,000 crossing attempts.
Authorities refuse to comment on the fate of migrants stopped.
In addition to Moroccans or Algerians, great numbers come from poorer sub-Saharan African countries.
Officials have repeatedly said that the country cannot be Europe’s migration police, putting pressure on northern neighbors to provide funds to manage the crisis.
Spain is reportedly seeking 50 million euros (US$56.24 million) from the EU budget for Rabat, which would be in addition to 130 million euros promised last year.
SATISFIED PARTNERS
“We are very satisfied with our partnership with Spain,” Bourita told reporters on Monday, as he stood by Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell, who was on a one-day visit to Morocco.
The funds provided to Rabat to date are “insufficient, but more significant than in the past,” Borrell said.
“Morocco helps us. We are not giving the country gifts,” said Borrell, who is one of the candidates to become the EU’s next top diplomat. “It’s a cooperation that enables the two parties to find a common interest.”
In a rebuke of what they call Europe’s “outsourcing of border controls,” advocates and rights groups have in the past criticized Morocco’s way of treating migrants, who are often arrested and sent to southern cities instead of the north, where Spanish coasts are visible across the Strait of Gibraltar.
Moroccan Legislator Brahim Boughaden from the city of Tiznit last week complained in a letter to the Moroccan Ministry of the Interior about the “negative effects” of the policies on the city.
REVOLVING DOOR
“These Africans will live for several days in dire humanitarian conditions, before leaving the city and returning to the north, repeating the same journey only to return and beg in the streets of Tiznit,” wrote Boughaden of the PJD Islamist Party.
Since last year, Moroccan authorities have also forcefully returned some migrants to Sub-Saharan countries, according to a May 21 internal EU report.
Morocco denies all accusations of humanitarian violations of migrants’ rights.
James Watson — the Nobel laureate co-credited with the pivotal discovery of DNA’s double-helix structure, but whose career was later tainted by his repeated racist remarks — has died, his former lab said on Friday. He was 97. The eminent biologist died on Thursday in hospice care on Long Island in New York, announced the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where he was based for much of his career. Watson became among the 20th century’s most storied scientists for his 1953 breakthrough discovery of the double helix with researcher partner Francis Crick. Along with Crick and Maurice Wilkins, he shared the
OUTRAGE: The former strongman was accused of corruption and responsibility for the killings of hundreds of thousands of political opponents during his time in office Indonesia yesterday awarded the title of national hero to late president Suharto, provoking outrage from rights groups who said the move was an attempt to whitewash decades of human rights abuses and corruption that took place during his 32 years in power. Suharto was a US ally during the Cold War who presided over decades of authoritarian rule, during which up to 1 million political opponents were killed, until he was toppled by protests in 1998. He was one of 10 people recognized by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto in a televised ceremony held at the presidential palace in Jakarta to mark National
US President Donald Trump handed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban a one-year exemption from sanctions for buying Russian oil and gas after the close right-wing allies held a chummy White House meeting on Friday. Trump slapped sanctions on Moscow’s two largest oil companies last month after losing patience with Russian President Vladimir Putin over his refusal to end the nearly four-year-old invasion of Ukraine. However, while Trump has pushed other European countries to stop buying oil that he says funds Moscow’s war machine, Orban used his first trip to the White House since Trump’s return to power to push for
LANDMARK: After first meeting Trump in Riyadh in May, al-Sharaa’s visit to the White House today would be the first by a Syrian leader since the country’s independence Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa arrived in the US on Saturday for a landmark official visit, his country’s state news agency SANA reported, a day after Washington removed him from a terrorism blacklist. Sharaa, whose rebel forces ousted long-time former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad late last year, is due to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House today. It is the first such visit by a Syrian president since the country’s independence in 1946, according to analysts. The interim leader met Trump for the first time in Riyadh during the US president’s regional tour in May. US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack earlier
RSS