Morocco’s Cooperation Helps Spain Slash Illegal Immigration by 40%

Illegal immigration is declining significantly in 2019. So far, 16,600 migrants have arrived by boat on the Spanish coast, a 40.2% decrease compared to 2018, when 26,260 people were arriving, according to provisional data from the Ministry of the Interior.

The same source indicates that the downward trend, which began to manifest itself in early June, has continued and has not occurred since 2017. From January 1 to July 31, 2019, 465 boats arrived on the Spanish coast, half of the number recorded in the same period the previous year, when a total of 962 were recorded.

According to experts consulted by La Razon, several reasons explain this trend. Among them, collaboration with other countries, particularly with Morocco, which prevents the departure of migrants, and the construction of temporary care centers (CATE), which prevents repeated images of piled-up immigrants.

For Paloma Favieres, Director of Policies and Campaigns of the Spanish Commission for Refugee Assistance (CEAR), "maritime arrivals have been reduced by the agreement with Morocco and, by land, because the barrier has become impractical, especially in Ceuta".