Madrid reserves 'special treatment' to Morocco in immigration matters, official

Spanish Secretary of State for Migratory Policy Consuelo Rumi, on Wednesday pleaded for a "special treatment" to be reserved to Morocco in immigration policy matters, with a view to facilitating the regularization of the situation of its nationals living illegally in Spain.

Rumi who was speaking at a press conference in Malaga (Southern Spain), conceded that her country had lived "a very negative pedagogy towards Morocco on the part of the former (conservative) government," and that a number of undocumented immigrants do not arrive in Spain from its Southern neighbor, Morocco, aboard what is commonly known as "Pateras" (makeshift boats).

Most of the immigrants enter Spain through airports, she said adding that a "recomposition" of relations between Spain and Morocco is a priority of the socialist Government as it was evidenced by the recent visit to Morocco of the new Spanish Prime Minister Jose Louis Rodriguez Zapatero, the first he paid abroad since he took office.

It is "irrevocable" to have good relations between Morocco and Spain "because we are interested in this entente and also because the migratory flow from this country is obvious," she explained.

Every year, tens of thousands of would-be immigrants mostly from Morocco and Sub-Saharan Africa attempt to cross the Gibraltar Strait to reach Europe via Spain.