Spain insists cooperation is sole means of averting illegal immigration

The consolidation of relations between Morocco and Spain is "the only useful means" to settle the problem of illegal immigration via the Gibraltar strait, the Spanish Interior Minister said.

"There is no magic wand" to deal with the problem of illegal immigration, Jaime Mayor Oreja, told the lower house of the Spanish parliament.

Oreja was responding to a question of the Nationalist Catalunian coalition "Convergencia y Unio," requesting that the Spanish government ensure a larger involvement by the Moroccan government in struggling against the illegal immigration.

Scores of Moroccan and North Arth African candidates to illegal immigration try to reach Spain via the troubled waters of the Gibraltar strait on board small makeshift boats, locally known as "pateras."

The Spanish Minister, who recalled that he had held 7 meetings with Moroccan peer Driss Basri, underlined that cooperation is the only means to fight the phenomenon of illegal immigration. He noted that Madrid "cannot solve the problem unilaterally."

It is also "unfair" to impute to a country like Morocco, which has long borders, the responsibility of an illegal immigration flow that comes from all of Africa.