Irregular migration to the Canary Islands puts Morocco under pressure

Recent data from the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) revealed that irregular migration movement along the West African route, which is taken by people seeking to reach the Canary Islands, increased by more than 300 percent during the first five months of this year compared to the same period last year. Nearly 18 crossing cases were monitored during the same period, especially from Mauritania, Senegal, and Mali.

The disclosure of these numbers comes at a time when the Moroccan authorities in charge of coastal security are redoubling their efforts to confront migrant smuggling networks, as a group of boats loaded with irregular immigration candidates were recently intercepted.

Those concerned confirm that the escalating wave of African youth migrating to their homelands as a result of a group of interconnected factors imposes increasing pressure on Rabat, and confirms the failure of the security approaches adopted by Europe in managing this issue.

Interacting with this issue, Khaled Mouneh, a researcher on migration issues, said, “What explains the escalation of the irregular migration movement in the last five months along the West African route is the emergence of a group of events in this region, such as the fragile security and economic conditions, especially in Senegal, which represents The starting point for migration boats towards Europe and the coasts of the Canary Islands,” he said, highlighting that “these numbers are a result of the absence of political stability in these countries, and express the state of despair that African youth have reached as a result of the marginalization and exclusion they suffer from, and the absence of the elements of democracy and human rights in “His homelands.”

The same spokesman explained, in a statement to the electronic newspaper Hespress, that “Frontex statistics concretely confirm the failure of security and repressive policies to limit the wave of irregular migration in light of the absence of approaches that address the causes of this migration and not its results,” noting that “the increase in attempts to migrate to Europe through this The road imposes pressure on Morocco at the security level, while Rabat receives only symbolic support from the European Union in exchange for European countries such as Turkey, Italy, Greece and Croatia taking over the lion’s share of the European budgets directed to managing this file, considering that these countries are among the first transit countries.”

On the other hand, the same researcher recorded that “immigration has become at the core of foreign policy priorities in Europe and a means of building new political systems in the West. This is because the extreme right on this continent, which achieved important results in the recent European elections, would not have been able to do so without its role.” This paper aims to attract voters’ votes, and thus immigration has become an important input into changing the internal political maps in European countries.”

He pointed out “the absence of accurate and objective statistics about immigration and the large amount of confusion regarding this issue, as Europe does not talk today about the number of immigrants arriving to it from outside Africa, as European politicians and the media are trying to create immigration teams and perpetuate an image of Africa as being the continent exporting immigration and this.” incorrect”.

Al-Hussein Bakkar Al-Sibai, a lawyer and researcher in immigration and human rights, said, “Today, Morocco faces a major challenge in the face of irregular migration, especially the one that originates from southern Morocco across the coastal strip of the Atlantic Ocean, without neglecting the coasts of Mauritania, Senegal, and even Gambia,” noting that “ “This sea line is the most dangerous, given the long sea distance, and multiple drowning cases have been recorded.”

He added, “The southern coasts of the Kingdom are difficult to monitor all their activities due to the length of these coasts, which require great financial, logistical, and human capabilities, which is what active networks in irregular migration exploit.” He pointed out that “irregular migration has shifted from northern to southern Morocco, due to the tightening of… The stranglehold on the Mediterranean Sea, and the great cooperation between Morocco, Spain and the Mediterranean countries, which prompted immigration gangs to search for new alternatives, including the Atlantic Ocean, which has become more active, especially with the successive deportation campaigns carried out by the Moroccan authorities from the north towards the cities of the south, such as Agadir and Tiznit. Tan-Tan and Sidi Ifni.”

He continued, saying: “It is noted that, recently, the departure of irregular migration boats has been recorded from the cities of Tan-Tan, Tarfaya, Laayoune, Boujdour and Dakhla, which are only about 120 km away from the Canary Islands archipelago, while other boats depart from neighboring countries such as Mauritania and Senegal or from West African countries.” “Which caused an influx of immigration from these African countries towards the Canary Islands,” he added, adding that “most of the immigrants who arrived in the Canary Islands in the last two years mostly set off from the coasts of Senegal and Mauritania, while a decline was recorded in the numbers of arrivals from the Moroccan coasts due to the intensification of Morocco surveillance operations on the Atlantic coasts.”

Al-Sibai pointed to “the monitoring carried out by the various security services, the auxiliary forces units, the Royal Armed Forces charged with monitoring the borders, the Royal Gendarmerie Forces and its naval units, without forgetting the major role that the Royal Navy plays not only in intercepting irregular migration networks, but also the various rescue operations that it undertakes.” Along the Atlantic coast in southern Morocco, where about 87,000 irregular migrants were intercepted last year, he pointed out that “waves of irregular migration will record a significant increase across the Atlantic coast, which will constitute a new shift in migration paths.”