Spanish Home Minister in Marrakesh

Spanish minister of the interior, Jaime Mayor Oreja, arrived in Marrakesh on Monday on a working visit.

Talks with his Moroccan peer Driss Basri will cover cooperation between the two countries interior departments as well as struggle against drug trafficking, organized crime and illegal emigration.

The Spanish official told the Spanish news agency "EFE" in Algesiras on monday that it is most necessary that relations between Spain and Morocco be based on dialogue in addressing emigration related issues.

The problem of the pateras, makeshift boats used by candidates to illegal emigration to reach Spanish coasts, requires a close cooperation with Morocco, he said, adding that this issue is of concern not only to Spain but to the whole European Union.

He said Spain plays a key role in fostering the union's interest in the immigration issue and in what is taking place in the Gibraltar strait, in Spanish or Moroccan territorial waters.

Every year, hundreds of illegal immigrants, mostly Moroccans, try to cross the Gibraltar strait to reach spain's southern coasts aboard the pateras. Several of them perish in the troubled waters of the strait.

Oreja described the phenomenon as "a human tragedy" facing up the Europeans.

Morocco has repeatedly called on the European Union to intensify cooperation with Morocco to combat illegal emigration, as Morocco cannot struggle alone against the phenomenon.

Basri said last January at a joint news conference with Oreja who was on a visit to Rabat that Morocco struggles alone against illegal emigration on the southern bank of the strait of Gibraltar, while on the northern bank, Spain is backed and assisted by all the European union members. He described the situation of one (Morocco) against fifteen (15 members of the EU) as being blatantly unbalanced and called the Union to extend further assistance to Morocco to promote its economic development.

The Moroccan and Spanish ministers of the interior hold regular meetings to discuss bilateral cooperation issues in the frame of the accords concluded by the two departments in July 1997 in Malaga. The accords cover among others cooperation in struggle against drug trafficking and civilian rescue operations.