Morocco Rejects EU Request to Take Back Non-Moroccan Migrants

The search for a readmission agreement prompted European Commissioner for Migration Yiva Johansson to visit Rabat this month, reports Reuters. As arrivals in the Canary Islands have seen a sharp increase. But the Moroccan Ministry of the Interior has rejected this request.

"Morocco is not in the logic of subcontracting and insists that each country assume its responsibility towards its nationals," Khalid Zerouali, the governor in charge of migration and border surveillance at the Ministry of the Interior, said in an email.

The kingdom is accustomed to readmitting an average of 15,000 of its own citizens who are sent back home by the EU each year. In 1992, it had committed to accepting third-country nationals from the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla within 24 hours.

Mr. Zerouali also said that Morocco has prevented 32,000 people from entering Europe this year, which can be compared to some 74,000 irregular immigration attempts last year. The tightening of Moroccan patrols along the northern coast and the effect of the closure of borders due to the Covid-19 health crisis have pushed smuggling networks to shift their routes towards the Canary Islands, 1,400 km (870 miles) off the African coast, he said.

According to the Spanish authorities, the number of migrants illegally reaching the Canary Islands this year stands at 20,000, ten times higher than last year. According to Ms. Johansson, half of these arrivals came from Morocco.