Spain and Morocco Agree on New Migrant Return Policy at Sea

Reducing the flow of illegal immigration is the watchword of the story. This "unprecedented strategy", according to the newspaper El Pais, which cites government officials, allows maritime rescue to disembark in Moroccan ports some of the migrants we like to call "rescued".

Until now, the "assisted" shipwrecked in the strait or in the Alboran Sea were taken to Spanish ports, even though the place of "rescue" was closer to the Moroccan coast. This measure can in particular be applied in cases where the Spanish maritime rescue assists the Moroccan coast guards in their own area of responsibility. And always on the condition that the nearest port is not Spanish.

This strategy aims to achieve the objective set by the government of Pedro Sanchez to halve the number of irregular immigrants. In 2018, there were 64,298 of them. A record year.

Finally, let us point out that out of the 23,135 people "rescued" in 2017, only 4,045 benefited from the assistance of Morocco, i.e. only 17%, according to the salvamentomaritime website.