Morocco, EU sign accord on funding program of Borders Control Management
Morocco-European Union, Politics, 12/21/2004

Morocco and the European Union (EU) signed, in Rabat Monday, a convention, providing for 40 million Euro to fund Morocco-EU program on Border Control Management.

The convention was signed by Moroccan general director of interior affairs in the Interior Ministry, Mohamed Yassine Mansouri, and EU's director general for Euro-Mediterranean affairs.

The program aims at a better management of migratory flows by combating illegal immigration of origin and transit more effectively.

The project illustrates the partition of responsibility between Morocco and the EU in dealing with common problems, notably illegal migration.

At a meeting of the Moroccan-EU association council in Luxembourg in October 2001, Morocco submitted a demand for technical cooperation to combat illegal migration. In response, the European Union introduced the project of Border Control Management in the national indicative program MEDA 2002-2004.

The program on Border Control Management focuses on institutional support through an aid to the Directorate of Migration and Border Surveillance and the Migration Observatory. It also provides for training the units in charge of combating illegal migration, awareness through preventive actions and supply of equipment (detection, surveillance and transmission).

Mansouri pointed out that the convention is the result of two years of negotiations. He said during preparatory meetings of Moroccan and EU experts the two sides determined the difficulties and challenges related to dealing with the problem of illegal migration which, he pointed out, requires a solidarity and shared responsibility between partners in the two banks of the Mediterranean.

The Moroccan official reiterated his country's total commitment to consolidating an exceptional partnership with EU to establish a zone of peace, stability and development in the Mediterranean.

On his part, Sean Doyle, head of the European Commission's delegation in Morocco, said the Commission is "seeking means to improve the conditions of migrant populations in Europe, eradicate conditions that lead to the phenomenon of migration and help partner countries to jointly deal with this issue."

Morocco, he said, will be supplied through this program with mobile equipment, vehicles and radars, as well as with technical assistance in order to dismantle human smuggling networks. This equipment, he went on, will also help control other traffics, notably drugs and money laundering.

Previous Stories:
  Morocco calls for a quota system for immigration   (10/24/2003)
  European commission proposes 250 mln euro aid to third countries concerned by immigration   (6/12/2003)
  Moroccan speaker calls for comprehensive, integrated approach to immigration   (5/23/2002)

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