Spain Withholds Data on Moroccan Migrant Repatriations from Canary Islands

The department of Fernando Grande-Marlaska is blacking out the operation to repatriate Moroccans from the Canary Islands. It refuses to communicate essential information such as the number of Moroccans repatriated, the cost of the hundreds of tickets purchased from the Royal Air Maroc company or the number of police officers mobilized to supervise each flight.

This request for information, formulated eight months ago by the newspaper El País in accordance with the transparency law, remained unanswered until the legal deadlines expired. On July 16, the Transparency Council, the body responsible for ensuring compliance with the law, reminding the ministry of the "importance" of this information for "public control" and "accountability", ordered it to respond within ten days to the questions asked about these repatriations of Moroccans. But once again, the Interior did not react.

To read: Spain Repatriates 80 Moroccan Migrants Weekly from Canary Islands to Western Sahara

What is it about? Minister Grande-Marlaska had made a visit to Rabat last November to relaunch the operation to repatriate Moroccans from the Canary Islands, suspended for months due to the health crisis. On December 7, the first flight left Gran Canaria for Laâyoune. According to the terms of the agreement with Rabat, a maximum of 80 Moroccans will be repatriated per week via four Royal Air Maroc (RAM) flights that will also carry tourists. Thus, each batch of 20 Moroccans per flight was to be accompanied by two police officers.

This regular flight plan was "a good deal" for Morocco, believes El País, which estimates that with this operation to repatriate its nationals (a maximum of 320 per month), the kingdom has relaunched its airline in the midst of a pandemic. But the operation had to be interrupted by Morocco four months later, with the suspension on March 31 of flights with Spain. And despite the resumption of flights since June, repatriations remain on hold. Moreover, the newspaper is curious to know why Morocco chose the city of Laâyoune to welcome the repatriated migrants. It also wants details on the costs of round-trip tickets to Laâyoune. For the moment, the Ministry of the Interior does not seem willing to provide this information.

To read: Morocco Repatriates 160 Citizens and Residents from Canary Islands Amid COVID-19 Crisis

In total, as of February 28, the Interior has repatriated 662 people from the Canary Islands, the majority of whom are Moroccans. Although the rate of Moroccan migrants arriving on the islands has decreased, the arrival of migrants in general on the islands has tripled this year compared to the same period last year and the security forces already fear a new surge from September.