30,000 immigrants wait in Northern Africa to enter Ceuta and Melilla
La Razón
October 12, 2005
The figures are taken from a report of the E.U., which will help Morocco to stop the illegal immigration. The 25 countries members of the E.U. have backed a summit with Rabat to find a solution.
Some 10,000 immigrants are already in Morocco waiting for their chance to enter Spain, and 20,000 more are waiting in Algeria to do the same in Morocco and, once there, into Spain as the gate to the E.U.
Luxembourg.- The recent avalanches of immigrants in Ceuta and Melilla have taken the challenge of the illegal immigration to the table of ministers of Justice and Home of the European Union, who met in Luxembourg. A challenge that doesn't stop, since as the European Comisair for Security and Justice -the Italian Franco Frattini- warned to the ministers, there are already 10,000 more immigrants in Morocco ready to jump to Spain. Other 20,000 immigrants, reported Frattini, are in Algeria with the intention of reaching Morocco and from there Europe through Spain.
This data is part of a preliminar report produced by the mission of experts of the Comission, which travelled a few days ago to Ceuta and Melilla and to Morocco, and which Frattini revealed to the ministers yesterday.
Frattini explained that he will not present a finished report until next week, but he told the ministers that the migratory pressure has increased over Ceuta and Melilla due to the sea patrolling effected by Spain and Morocco, which has produced a decrease in the attempts of the immigrants to arrive with boats to the Canary Islands an, as a consequence, an increase in the attempts to reach Europe through other places.
According to the experts of the European Comission, the figure of 30,000 immigrants which are in Morocco and Algeria shows that there is an increase in the migratory pressure to the E.U. and the neighbouring country.
The pressure will keep going
There is no evidence that this pressure will reduce in the short term, said Frattini to the ministers, and it is forseeable that the reason that push the immigrants to try to reach Europe, like poverty or the conflicts in their countries, will continue in the coming years. In the light of the situation, Frattini demanded the compromise of the E.U. countries to give a common answer to illegal immigration, as it is not just a problem which affects only to bordering countries like Spain, Italy or Malta, but all the members.
Frattini assure that he will try to increase the help from the E.U. to Morocco to control their territorial frontiers and to face the arrival of immigrants from other African countries who use their territory to then jump into Europe.
Among the measures proposed by Frattini there is the reinforcement of the control of the external frontiers in the E.U., like the one with Morocco; the signing of agreements of re-admision of the immigrants, among them the one which is being negotiated since over a year ago with Morocco; or a reinforcement in the interchange of information between the information services. For this to become a reality, the European Commision would need between 10 and 20 million Euros during 2006. Recently the Commision announced the release of 40 million Euros for this matter as part of the programme MEDA.
The Commisaire backed the idea of Morocco and Spain to summon a summit on immigration with the participation of European and African countries. The African Union also backed this meeting. The president of this organisation in Brussels, Alpha Oumar Konare, said that probably the African countries will discuss the problem of immigration among themselves to then meet the "European friends".
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