Air bridge to return African emigrants from Morocco
Morocco-Regional, Politics, 10/10/2005

Al-Jazeera satellite TV said that the UN organization for Migration and the ICRC opened an air bridge between the Moroccan city of Wajda and the countries of the south of the African desert to repatriate illegal emigrants.

The evacuation is carried out in coordination with countries concerned. However, diplomats from Senegal, Genea and Mali visited their citizens in the border areas after their attempts to prevent other thousands to enter the two areas of Sabta and Malila which fall under the Spanish sovereignty.

Meantime, certain humanitarian organizations accused the Moroccan authorities of expelling hundreds of emigrants by buses to the desert on the border with Algeria.

According to these organizations, these emigrants, including women and children, are in need of food and portable water.

One Algerian security source accused Morocco of attempting to expel emigrants to the Algerian territories, stressing that the Algerian border guards try to prevent them from crossing.

Supported by the army, the Moroccan security is trying to halt the infiltration and mopping up operations of the woods areas which surround Sabta and Malila. The authorities decided to build a wall and drill a ditch of three meter depth on the border side of al-Nazer Moroccan city.

In reaction to the criticism, the Moroccan minister of information Nabil Bin Abdullah stressed his country's care to honor humanitarian dignity and all international norms in fighting illegal migration.

The director of consulate affairs at the Moroccan foreign ministry Jawad Hamdi said that his country is facing a difficult situation and has no power to bear the arrival of scores of thousands of emigrants who sneak from the eastern borders to enter Spain from the north of the country.

The UNHCR started talks with Spain and Morocco to make sure of the good treatment given to the refugees as 14 of them were killed during the past weeks, many of them in confrontations with the security forces.

Previous Stories:
  Diplomatic moves to contain crisis of emigrants from Morocco to Spain   (10/10/2005)
  Europe's and America's Moroccans mobilize for Sahara issue   (6/30/2005)
  Morocco proposes a free trade area among OIC members   (6/20/2005)
  Moroccan ambassador lecture on world peace   (6/20/2005)

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