Morocco Detains 25,000 Migrants as EU Boosts Border Control Funding

Despite all the measures taken to prevent them from returning to Europe, not a day goes by without migrants reaching their "Eldorado". According to Khalid Zerouali, head of border control in Morocco, who confided in Reuters, "7,202 migrants have illegally joined Spain this year". Which is nearly "2,000 more crossings than the same period last year," he adds. However, according to the news agency, "more than half of the crossings this year took place in January and their number has dropped sharply over the following three months".

In Khalid Zerouali’s view, "the Moroccan authorities have prevented 25,000 illegal crossings since January, an increase of 30% compared to the same period in 2018". According to him, this performance is due "to the repression of the authorities against the 50 smuggling networks operating at the local and international levels, which have been dismantled so far, i.e. 63% more than in 2018".

But also and above all, the head of border control in Morocco attaches importance to the efforts of the government whose measures, he insists "have helped curb the migratory flow to Spain". And to add that "last year, nearly 57,000 migrants joined Spain. The majority of them crossed the Mediterranean during the summer months," he concludes.