Morocco - Spain illegal immigration issue heats up
Morocco-Spain, Politics, 10/8/2005

To study latest developments concerning the illegal migration issue, the Spanish foreign minister Miguel Moratinos is intending to visit Morocco next Monday.

Meantime, a technical mission from the European Union headed for Morocco and the two cities of Sabta and Malila which fall under the Spanish control in order to assess the situation of illegal emigrants to Europe.

These moves came after six African emigrants were killed when hundreds, most of them are from south Sahara African states, were able to break into the barrier which separates between Morocco and Malila city, which is occupied by Spain, and thereby the number of persons killed in the crossing attempts increased to 11 within one week.

Al-Jazeera satellite TV said that the authorities detained 136 illegal emigrants during their attempt to sneak from al-Nadour city to Sabta and Malila, and this increased the number of detainees to 1200 in one week.

With such a complicated situation, the European commission called on the Spanish and Moroccan authorities to "deal moderately" with this phenomenon and simultaneously admitted that "it is a situation which is very difficult to deal with."

In Spain, the coalition among the communists and defenders of the environment, the allies of socialists in the parliament, called for an immediate halt to the "extradition operation and to file an official compliant against Morocco concerning the Africans who were left in the desert and 24 of them died because of thirst."

Previous Stories:
  Spain expels scores of emigrants to Morocco   (10/8/2005)
  Moroccan- Spanish summit   (9/30/2005)
  Moroccan authorities arrest over 100 illegal emigrants   (6/17/2005)

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