Spanish Far-Right Party Vox Alleges Moroccan Encroachment Near Chafarinas Islands

The Spanish government had reacted on the subject, in response to questions from the Vox parliamentary group, specifying that the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food had not received any request from a company or the Moroccan government for the installation of a fish farm in the area concerned. This response is far from convincing the senator Merelo who confirms, with evidence, the existence of this fish farm.

The senator first mentions a ministerial decree published in the official journal of Morocco which grants the company "Mediterranean Aquafarm" the authorization to install a fish farm in the waters near the Chafarinas Islands. The Vox senator in Ceuta then recalls that a ship had installed a series of cages intended for fish farming in May last, about 700 meters south of the Chafarinas Islands "an area even closer than what is provided for in the cited official journal".

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According to Merelo, the Spanish territorial waters would reach more than two kilometers in this area, and that consequently, the decree of the Moroccan minister granting a concession in Spanish waters constitutes "a new attack against Spanish sovereignty".

The senator of the far-right formation also denounces "the passivity shown by the Spanish authorities" and asks the government to justify that the territorial waters of the Chafarinas do not belong to the Spanish territorial waters. She also asks the Executive to explain the lack of precision of the borders in the waters of Ceuta, Melilla, the Vélez de la Gomera and Al Hoceima rocks.