Doha – A new report by the mixed migration center, which was published this month, shows how Morocco has significantly strengthened the enforcement mechanisms along the migration routes to Europe and has been successfully preventing tens of thousands of “illegal intersections” since the beginning of 2023.
The study entitled “Beyond restrictions: How migration and smuggling self -changing guidelines in the entire Mediterranean, the Atlantic and the English Channel adapt”, ” examined How Morocco’s strategic position made it possible to negotiate favorable agreements with Spain and the European Union.
“Morocco-ongoing role as a transit and target country for migrants has created significant opportunities to use its position in the administration of migration between mainland and Africa,” says the report, as has led to several shops signed In the past two decades.
In July 2022, the EU launched an opposite operational partnership with Morocco, supposedly “in attack on criminal networks, with irregular migration and rescue of life”.
In addition to a broader EU support, this partnership is worth 1.4 billion € for “reforms and increased resilience” until 2027.
According to the report, the diplomatic relationship between Spain and Morocco has improved considerably since 2022 after an incident in 2021 when about 10,000 people occurred in Ceuta on a single day.
The two countries then repaired and strengthened their “strategic partnership” for migration by a number of agreements on “migration management” in 2023.
The investigations show that the enforcement measures in Morocco have made the western Mediterranean path (WMR) “for Africans south of the Sahara more and more inaccessible”.
After the tragedy of 2022 in Melilla, in which 23 migrants were killed, the report notes that “racist profil creation is that Africans are south of the Sahara near the enclave”.
“The Moroccan authorities treat people differently, depending on whether they are North African or south of the Sahara. People from Africa south of the Sahara know that Morocco is not safe for them,” said a surveyor to researchers.
Morocco holds the line
The data from the report show that the numbers along this route in 2018 steadily reduced with 60,000 intersections and then remained relatively stable at around 17,000 intersections per year.
In 2024, the arrivals to Spain was over the WMR at 17,475, comparable to the 17,208 in 2023.
This stability reflects the consistent enforcement efforts of Morocco. According to Frontex data mentioned in the report, the numbers along this route in 2024 (between January and October) reduced by 5%compared to the same period in 2023.
Despite reduced movement along the WMR, smuggling Networks Remain actively and act as “Poly Criminal Networks, in order to obtain income in times of slow movement with diversified sources of income in various ways, including illegal drugs and other goods trading.
This indicates that Schmuggler networks “could be easy to return to migrant smuggling or to expand when demand returns”.
In the study, Morocco’s closest command on migration flows are given in a broader European context and found that Frontex recorded a decline in irregular migration from 25% in January to February compared to the same period in 2024 in March 2025.
The report ends with the assessment of migration currents in Morocco. As a surveyed noted: “Spain and the EU have paid off Morocco a lot of money for the control of migrants, so that the numbers that come across this path have reduced. “
Read too: Morocco stops over 78,000 irregular attempts at migration in 2024
