THE FIGHT AGAINST ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION :
In France, damage done by illegal immigrants to merchandises pushed the transporters to make pressure on French Ministry of Transport, on the Police of the frontiers and on the Customs Department. They want them to take necessary measures for this problem which enclave the commerce.
To attenuate illegal immigration, Madrid set up a procedure of surveillance at the coasts. They installed radars and cameras which will be operational soon. For Morocco, this solution will treat only the symptoms and the not the causes of the problem. But the real solution must be economic and political, because Europe will always be "irresistible" for the poor Africans. Also in Morocco, the authorities become more conscious about the consequences of this phenomenon. In Casablanca, security’s measures in industrial zones and in the port have been reinforced. Moreover, the government will "fill in the vacuum" in the Criminal law about illegal emigrants.
Moreover, some Europeans experts were in Morocco. Their aim : study and define the different ways to reinforce the control in the frontiers. In fact, the program MEDA II will finance and help technically projects of fighting against illegal emigration to Europe.
On the other hand, the Moroccan government set up a commission charged to find solutions to this phenomenon. So, he asked Europe to finance his procedure the big fight. In order to reinforce the surveillance on frontiers, we need a financial aid of about 80 millions € (an equivalent of an average of 800 millions DH). However, European Union financed only half of the total (400 millions DH).
As all the similar projects, a group of European experts have been send to study the possibility to concretize the project. They are ten persons, they come from Spain, Portugal, France, Netherlands and Italy. Their principal missions were three : consolidate the responsible departments of frontiers control ; to train frontiers agents to use the new technologies needed to the control and give a financial aid for the equipment. The latter mission will not be done until the two first would be well ahead.
The regions which are interested by the missions are : the North, Laayoune and the South frontiers. The first one is the destination to Europe ; the second is the destination to the Canaries islands and the third the "door" of the sub-Saharan candidates. For the agreements of the partnership between Mediterranean countries and European Union, the latter want to introduce a clause about illegal immigration. The aim of this clause is to manage the flows of the immigrants. If a country does not respect it, the European Union will suspend the agreements.
Europe is convinced that the development of Morocco is the most efficient solution the problem. That is why European Union gives us aids and develops commercial agreements and participates to the fight against poverty and against illegal immigration. But they will give us sanctions if we don’t respect the agreement of the fight.
On an other hand, Morocco and European Union want to create an agency of immigration. This organization will be financed by Europe ( 50 millions DH). The aim is to have a one interlocutor for Europeans about migratory flows. The agency will have the principal mission of helping the candidates to emigration in order to assure their security and to make them aware about the "human traffic". The agency must also create a data base of legal emigration and dialog between Moroccan government and Europeans countries.
There is another politic of fighting against illegal emigration : relocation of industries. European partners must invest in Morocco to create new jobs. It encourage candidates to illegal immigration to "stay at home". We know that the principal cause of illegal immigration is jobless and poverty. But if we help young people to find a job, earn money and have a decent life, we can be sure that they will prefer to stay in their country. So, we must encourage investment and Europeans countries must help us in this fight against illegal immigration.
A lot of people, Moroccans and Sub-Saharan, cross everyday the frontiers to Europe. In dangerous boats, they take the risk of loosing their life to attempt the dream of a better world.
The victims of the ocean are numerous, but this reality doesn’t stop them. Those who arrive at the other side can be arrested by the police and send back to their countries. And even if, they will retry another time and another and another. For them, there are only two solutions : to cross the frontiers or to die. They are in majority young, jobless and poor. They think that abroad they will have a better life. Their illegal actions causes a lot of economic damages for all the countries. This made Europe very "hungry" and deteriorate the relationship with Morocco. The surveillance on the frontiers is reinforced and some agreements have been done to resolve the problem. Front of emigrants voluntary to attempt Europe, the authorities seem unable of fighting against illegal emigration.
The causes and consequences of this phenomenon are known by all. The concerned countries took the measures to fight against it. But the question now is : are the measures taken by the governments sufficient to fight against illegal emigration ?
The end.
