First Independent Mena Newspaper
IOM, the UN Migration Agency, reports that 84,345 migrants and refugees entered Europe by sea in 2018 through 3 October, with 38,451 to Spain, the leading destination this year. The data show a drop in the region’s total arrivals compared with 139,677 arrivals across the region through the same period last year, and 312,153 at […]
Morocco reiterates its refusal of hosting migrant detention centers known as disembarkation platforms allowing the EU to externalize its asylum and migration policies. In an interview with German newspaper Die Welt, Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita reaffirmed that his country “is generally opposed to all kinds of centers,” “This is part of our migration policy […]
Morocco-Spain route emerged as the prime destination for Sub-Saharan migrant mostly fleeing poverty in Africa. The North African country has so far averted 54,000 crossing attempts as trafficking gangs make enormous gains. Government spokesman, Mustapha El Khalfi, said the country can no longer let its territory shelter human trafficking networks and refuses to play the […]
Morocco cannot accept that its territories serve as a safe haven for human trafficking networks and refuses to play the role of the region’s policeman, Spokesperson for the Government, Mustapha El Khalfi, said Thursday in Rabat. Mustapha El Khalfi was adamant on this issue, during the press briefing given at the end of the Cabinet […]
Morocco has urged the Europol for closer cooperation to monitor radicalized youth in Europe, head of Morocco’s counterterrorism agency (BCIJ) Abdelhak Khiame said. Morocco has established a strategy to protect its large diaspora in Europe from the threat of extremism, he said in an interview with Spanish news agency EFE, urging Europol to give Moroccan […]
The delay in the renewal of the EU-Morocco fisheries agreement has prompted fishing ships from EU countries to leave Moroccan ports and territorial waters. After several weeks of talks between Rabat and Brussels without reaching a new deal, Europeans vessels mostly from Spain and Portugal started leaving Moroccan ports and waters on the eve of […]
The EU has been thinking of outsourcing the management of migration and asylum to North African countries where most migrants are taking the perilous sea route to Europe. The idea of setting up migrant processing centers is winning support in the EU but has been met with utter rejection by Morocco, Algeria and tunisia. “Morocco […]
Hats off to the head of Morocco’s police and domestic intelligence services Abdellatif Hammouchi, wrote El Pais in an article that praises Morocco’s role in Europe’s security. The paper described Hammouchi, a “man who never sleeps”, as a “super-agent honored by Europe” in recognition of his qualifications. “If Morocco managed to stay at bay of […]
Libyan coastguards have picked up about 1000 African migrants on inflatable boats in several operations Sunday and recovered the body of ten others, officials at a naval base said. All migrants were given humanitarian and medical aid, and were taken to a naval base in the capital, Tripoli, and a refugee camp in Khoms town. […]
The number of Algerians who sought political asylum in Europe in the year 2017 reached 10,000, data from Eurostat, a European statistical agency, showed. According to Eurosat, the 28 countries of the European Union have registered over 750,000 asylum applications in 2017, a decrease from 2015 and 2016 figures, when applicants numbered 1,323,000 and 1,260,000 […]