IMMIGRATION: Spain, Morocco Blame Each Other for Trafficking

By Tito Drago Reprint | | Print |

Tito Drago

MADRID, Sep 4 2001 (IPS) - Spain and Morocco traded accusations Tuesday, blaming each other for not doing enough to fight the criminal organisations involved in the trafficking of immigrants.

“It is true that there are criminal organisations in Morocco that feed off clandestine emigration and drug trafficking,” said Moroccan King Mohammed VI in an interview published Tuesday by the French daily Le Figaro. “But in Spain there are also mafias, and they are richer than the ones in Morocco.”

Spain’s Foreign Ministry told the Moroccan Embassy last week that the massive inflow of undocumented immigrants on rickety boats from Moroccan coasts was “unacceptable.”

The president of the Spanish region (autonomous community) of Castilla-La Mancha and head of the opposition Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE), José Bono, backed the Foreign Ministry’s statement, and said Morocco, whose government he termed an “undercover dictatorship”, “is dominated by mafias that swindle people and send them” to Spain.

For his part, the king of Morocco maintained that “the boats that carry the undocumented immigrants come from Spain…They are very expensive, and are equipped with powerful motors” that make them much faster than “the frigates of the Moroccan navy.

“Morocco’s problems will only be resolved by the true involvement of the 15 European Union countries in the development of my country,” the king asserted.

Moroccan Ambassador to Spain Abdeslam Baraka underlined Tuesday that “we are talking about very modern, well-equipped boats built specifically for such operations, which are neither manufactured nor sold in Morocco.”

After Baraka’s press conference, Spain’s secretary of Foreign Affairs, Miquel Nadal, said the trafficking of undocumented immigrants originated on the beaches of Morocco, and “that is where it is necessary to act.”

He also said that if Morocco “has proof that there are Spanish- based mafias, then it should tell us, because we will act with the greatest determination.”

Meanwhile, the flow of Moroccan immigrants who make it into Spain, are captured in the attempt or die crossing the Mediterranean sea is steadily growing.

Fifty-seven undocumented immigrants were arrested Tuesday in the Spanish city of Algeciras, on the Mediterranean sea. They had crossed from Ceuta, a Spanish enclave on the Moroccan coast. Both cities are near the Strait of Gibraltar.

Thousands of Africans without visas are waiting on Morocco’s beaches for boats to take them to Spain.

The president of the Association of Immigrant Moroccan Workers in Spain (ATIME), Abdel Hamid Beyuki, agreed that the powerful motorboats used to cross the Mediterranean from Morocco “are imported from Spain.”

But “the Moroccan government cannot just sit back and say that because there are no resources, nothing can be done,” he added.

The phenomenon is rooted in the difficult living conditions in Morocco and the rest of Africa. But those desiring to work and live in Europe face major barriers, starting with the legal ones.

“We set borders in place for people from developing countries. We set borders in place for their products, with our tariffs. We set up barriers that make it difficult for us to take advantage of their raw materials,” lamented Manuel Pimentel, who served as labour minister in the first government of Prime Minister José María Aznar (in office since 1996).

“With that, we are perpetuating a dynamic by which the rich become richer and the poor, poorer…That is neither fair, sustainable in the long-term, nor intelligent,” said Pimentel.

Baraka said that even if there were enough jobs in his country, workers will always receive better pay in the industrialised world.

He also complained that foreign companies enticed computer technicians and engineers, whose training entailed an enormous sacrifice and cost for the country, away from Morocco.