The Spanish Ministry of the Interior has rolled out a 30 million euros aid to Morocco to cover expenses of border control. Another 16 million euros will go to Ceuta and Melilla.
In a document detailing the assistance provided to Morocco seen by the Spanish newspaper Moncloa, the aid aim “to contribute to covering the expenses incurred in the operations of spreading workers at the borders, in addition to the expenses of maintaining the materials used by the Moroccan police services in the development of cooperative measures.”
The assistance should contribute to covering expenditures related to land, sea, and coastal patrols and surveillance, as well as costs related to maintenance and repair of infrastructure, goods, and materials for border control.
The assistance should also help “cover the expenses associated with the procedures for the return of irregular migrants to Moroccan territory, including fuel costs, support for irregular migrants and return tickets.”
The newly announced aid follows repeated calls by Morocco’s migration chief, Khaled Zerouali who said that the assistance provided by the European Union to Morocco to combat irregular migration, amounting to 500 million euros over seven years, is not sufficient to cover state expenditures, which amount to 427 million euros annually.
Zerouali added, in an interview with the Spanish news agency “EFE”: “Within the framework of good cooperation, good neighborliness, and joint responsibility, we consider that what has been allocated in this framework is less than what is required.”
The same official highlighted that the 300 million euros of financial support, in addition to the 200 million in technical support granted by the European Union to Morocco for the period between 2021 and 2027, is much less than what the Moroccan state spends, which is estimated at 427 million euros each year.
Algeria, Morocco, and Western Sahara continue to be the main departure points from which irregular migrants try to reach mainland Spain and the Canary Islands by the sea in 2022, according to a European Commission report published this Thursday, seen by Spanish agency EFE.
From January 1 to September 25, there had been 22,921 irregular arrivals through the Western Mediterranean route, a decrease of 16% compared to the same period in 2021 and an increase of 7% compared to 2019.
Arrivals to the Canary Islands, 12,347 in 2022, are 5% lower than in 2021, but almost 13 times higher than in 2019.
The main countries of origin of those who resort to the western route are Morocco, Algeria, Senegal, Ivory Coast and Guinea.
Throughout the entire Mediterranean, 116,610 irregular arrivals were detected until September 25, 39% more than in the same period of 2021 and 47% more than in 2019. The figures are far from those recorded in 2015.
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