Morocco rejects EU request to take back third-country migrants

Morocco has rejected a European Union request to host third-party migrants who reached Europe through the Kingdom, the Interior ministry announced on Tuesday.

The rejection comes after EU migration commissioner Yiva Johansson visited Rabat earlier in December to discuss the possibility of returning migrants to Morocco.

«Morocco is not into the logic of subcontracting and insists that each country accepts its responsibility towards its nationals», Moroccan migration and border control chief at the Interior Ministry Khalid Zerouali told Reuters.

Due to Covid-19 border closures, the number of migrants arriving in the Canary Islands increased significantly. This year, 20,000 migrants reached the archipelago, 10 times more than the previous year.

According to Zerouali, «tighter Moroccan patrols along the northern coast and the effect of COVID-19 border closures have pushed trafficking networks to shift their routes towards the Canary Islands».

For the record, the European Union has granted Morocco 343 million euros since 2018 to help it counter irregular migration.