Joshua Parfitt
SPAIN has agreed to give Morocco €30 million to curb illegal immigration to its shores.
The cash is on top of €140 already pledged by the EU, used to purchase 750 vehicles, 15 drones, dozens of scanners, radars and other technical equipment for border control from Morocco.
It comes as irregular immigration numbers to Spanish shores have already fallen 27% this year, according to Interior Ministry figures.
The allocations of funds was agreed last Friday, and follows renewed relations between Spain and Morocco.
The money will cover part of ‘the costs incurred by Moroccan authorities in their cooperation with Spain, and the entire EU, on border management and the fight against irregular immigration headed for the Spanish coast’, according to a document justifying the expense.
Morocco’s head of border control and migration, Khalid Zerouali, told El Pais the EU’s €140 million was ‘a good start’, and suggested that future talks with Brussels will determine the compensation that Morocco deems appropriate.
According to the Moroccan authorities, over 40,300 illegal immigration attempts have been foiled in the first six months of 2019.
