The high volume of irregular migration to Spain and the European Union would be “unmanageable” without Morocco, the President of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, said in a press conference in Rabat on Tuesday.
The Canary Islands have been a key landing point for migrants trying to get to Europe by sea. Clavijo applauded Morocco’s contributions to stemming irregular migration, particularly from the Sahel region, where attempts to emigrate have surged.
“Morocco’s immense efforts are essential for maintaining control,” Clavijo said. “Without 8,000 personnel dedicated to this task, the situation would be unsustainable for Spain and the EU.”
Clavijo’s visit to Rabat is his second trip to Morocco and his first since the beginning of his current term as president. His talks with Morocco’s Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita included discussions on the sensitive issue of territorial waters between the two regions. Bourita described the talks as progressing, with “solutions still to be found.”
Bourita reiterated Morocco’s commitment to tackling human trafficking and illegal migration, citing Morocco’s 2013 policy that has allowed 60,000 African migrants to regularize their status as legal residents in Morocco.
Morocco is actively deploying its security forces to ensure that the country is not an easy transit point for migrants bound for Europe, according to Bourita.
“This is a permanent effort,” Bourita said. “We don’t need lessons from anyone—Morocco has been addressing this issue for years.”
Bourita also criticized what he sees as the negative tone of migration discourse in Europe, suggesting that political leaders often use the issue of migration as a “political tool.” He pointed to the discrepancy between the heated political rhetoric around migration and the reality on the ground, calling it a “chasm.”
“The migrant is not a criminal, but the networks that traffic these people are,” he said, referring to human smuggling operations that prey on desperate individuals seeking to cross into Europe.