Point 3 is no solution
Reader comment on item: West Africa - Europe's New Border
in response to reader comment: how to solve the Canary Island problem

Submitted by Farid H. (Germany), Apr 6, 2006 at 14:09

Mark, your point 3. (using Morocco as staging area for sub saharians) won't work. Former german interior minister Otto Schily floated this proposal within the EU and the EU talked to moroccan officals about this; but they didn't reach an agreement. The reason for this is plain simple: the only way to stage sub saharians in Morocco would be in camps paid-for by the EU, and we're not so fond in Morocco of having on our own territory refugee camps like in Libanon or Jordan (if you know what I mean). Just because the EU is mutating into a fortress, is no reason to outsource their immigration problem to their direct neighbors; esp. when the immigrants come from even farther away.

Sub saharians are trying all they can to enter the EU, and it's EU's problem (and ours as involuntary transit country) as well. All we (Morocco) can do, is tighten our borders as best as we can. The recent agreement with Spain and with the EU helped our border police financially; and that's the only way to go. And the cost of keeping Europe's southern border safe, we had to pay it with a lot of bad press in Europe, because we had to load sub saharians on trucks (on request of EU countries!) and drive them back to the border to Algeria or Mauritania, where they entered our country.

Regards,
-Farid H.

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