Combatting illegal migration: Morocco's efforts in figures

Migration governance in Morocco is based on a holistic, multi-dimensional approach which, by prioritizing respect for the migrants’ rights and dignity, is intended to be efficient and proactive in the fight against mafia networks and human trafficking.

Here follow some figures on the Kingdom’s extensive efforts to combat illegal migration.

– Over 360,000 illegal migration attempts have been thwarted since 2017. – Since 2018, more than 8,100 African nationals have benefited from voluntary returns organized and financed by the Ministry of the Interior by both air and land.

– Around 2,400 people returned in 2021 and over 1,100 in 2020 as part of voluntary returns. – Morocco’s Royal Navy rescued almost 15,000 people at sea in 2021 and 2,384 in 2022.

– 1,300 networks dismantled over the past 5 years.

– Arrest of 32,733 would-be illegal immigrants, including 28,146 foreigners of various nationalities.

– Dismantling of 92 criminal networks involved in clandestine organization.

– Arrest of 566 organizers and intermediaries, an increase of over 36% compared with 2021, in addition to the arrest of 415 organizers of illegal immigration.

– Seizure of 832 false travel or identity documents, 193 boats, 156 marine engines and 61 vehicles used in the organization of migration operations.

– Some 50,000 migrants have regularized their situation thanks to the exceptional operation to regularize the situation of immigrants in Morocco, held in 2014 and 2017.

Over the past five years, Moroccan authorities have thwarted some 366,000 attempts to emigrate illegally to Europe. This number rose to 70,781 failed attempts in 2022 and 25,519 at the end of May 2023, according to data provided by the Interior Ministry.

The data also show that rescue operations at sea have involved some 90,000 migrants over the past five years. In 2022, 12,478 migrants were rescued at sea, compared with 3,150 at the end of May 2023.

With regard to the dismantling of criminal migrant smuggling networks, the same source notes that almost 290 criminal networks were dismantled in 2022, compared with 117 at the end of May 2023, bringing the total number of such networks dismantled over the last five years to around 1,500.

With regard to the attempted assaults on Sebta and Melilia, which have been repulsed by the Moroccan authorities, Interior Ministry’s figures show that around one hundred attempts have been aborted over the last five years, involving some 17,500 assailants.

In 2022 alone, 16 attempts were made to attack the fences at Sebta and Melilia, compared with just one attempt in the last five months of 2023, thanks to the reinforcement of measures to combat irregular migration, according to the same source.