Morocco ‘foils’ over 50,000 migrant crossings to Europe

  08 September 2018    Read: 1221
Morocco ‘foils’ over 50,000 migrant crossings to Europe

Moroccan authorities have so far this year foiled 54,000 bids by illegal migrants to cross to Europe, AFP said Friday, citing a MAP news agency report.

It said that Morocco had dismantled 74 “criminal networks” linked to people smuggling and seized 1,900 boats over the same period during a special operation.

The North African country is a key route for sub-Saharan Africans trying to reach Europe via Spain.

In July, hundreds of migrants forced their way into the Spanish exclave of Ceuta by violently storming a heavily fortified border fence with Morocco. Ceuta and Melilla, Spain’s other tiny territory in North Africa, make up the European Union’s only land borders with Africa.

 


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