Spanish Far-Right Party Calls for End to Morocco Agreement Amid Birth Registry Fraud

"We cannot allow this type of mafia to concentrate in the city," said the Melilla section of Vox, recalling that the police dismantled on April 22 a network of forgers who helped Moroccan women fraudulently declare their newborns as Spanish. In total, 78 Moroccan babies, according to the national police, have been registered in the civil registry of the autonomous city as Spaniards, reports El Faro de Melilla.

The investigation carried out made it possible to discover the modus operandi of the network which, thanks to intermediaries, contacts Spaniards of Moroccan origin for the most part, to declare these children as their own, in exchange for a payment between 1,500 and 3,000 euros, reports El Faro de Melilla. In doing so, the minors automatically acquire Spanish nationality, which allows their mothers to undertake the administrative formalities to obtain residence permits.

For Vox, this situation is the consequence of the visa exemption granted to Moroccans from Tetouan and the good neighborliness agreement between Spain and Morocco, because it is thanks to these facilities that pregnant Moroccan women have been able to access Melilla. This agreement "has not been beneficial for Spain," said the far-right formation, denouncing the "crime, illegal immigration, the situation of unaccompanied minors (MENA) which create serious security problems for the citizens" of Melilla.

"What will happen when the border reopens? [...] What health and security measures are planned to control entries into our city?" wonders the party, which says it does not understand the reasons for this "state secret" around these measures. For all these reasons, the political formation demands the immediate repeal of the visa exemption and the good neighborliness agreement in force between Spain and Morocco.