Illegal immigration: Morocco, Spain carry on joint sea patrols

The second operation of Moroccan-Spanish joint sea patrols aimed at fighting illegal immigration was held Wednesday between Morocco's southern provinces and Spain's Canary Islands.

The decision to carry out the joint patrols was made by the two governments during a high level meeting in Marrakesh last December.

Two unarmed members of the Spanish Guardia Civil embarked, along with Moroccan county police members, in a ship of the Moroccan Royal Navy to watch usual itineraries of human traffickers' makeshift boats.

In the first operation of the kind conducted last Thursday two Moroccan unarmed county policemen boarded a Spanish patrol.

Bilateral cooperation in illegal immigration fighting, an official said, enabled the interception of some 500 candidates. Immigrants are given medical care and sent back home in total respect of human rights, he added.

Illegal immigrants, mainly sub-Saharans, come to Morocco seeking to cross to Spain or other European countries. They usually enter from the eastern border, near the Algerian city of Maghnia.

Morocco has created last November two new bodies to fight illegal immigration and crack down on human trafficking networks, namely the Directorate of Migration and Border Surveillance and the Migration Observatory.