The formulas for trying to enter Europe irregularly are constantly reinvented. Given the greater police pressure that Morocco exerts on its coasts to prevent the departure of boats or the tight control it carries out at the border crossings of Ceuta and Melilla, the mafias have found a new vein. For weeks, the asylum and inadmissible rooms at the Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas airport have been collapsed due to the fraudulent use of flights from the official Moroccan airline, Royal Air Maroc. The Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, traveled to the neighboring country yesterday to address greater collaboration on the matter.
The modus operandi is simple, while it does not entail the risks of climbing a fence or getting into a canoe. These are migrants from Kenya, Senegal or Morocco who get on a plane from Casablanca bound for countries like El Salvador, Bolivia or Brazil, but with an essential element: a stopover in Madrid. These South American countries do not require a visa for these nationals from African countries, nor – at this time – is a transit visa necessary to make a stopover in the Barajas international zone. Once they land in the capital, they get rid of their passports and go to ask for international protection.
This dynamic is becoming common with the flight from Casablanca that lands in Madrid at 8 p.m. The number varies every day, according to police sources, but about 300 migrants remain overcrowded, despite the fact that the Interior ordered the transfer to a detention center for foreigners, in the face of criticism from the Prosecutor's Office.
The Interior's intention is to block this entry route. The minister, after meeting with his counterpart, announced that the Government is studying introducing airport transit visas, as the Unified Police Union has been demanding. These visas must be requested in Casablanca when checking in: if the airline allows passengers access without them, it should be sanctioned.
The police union asks to extend this demand to all people from Senegal, Mali, Kenya and Morocco. According to ministerial sources told La Vanguardia, from today it will be mandatory for people with a Kenyan passport. For Moroccans, according to the same sources, this requirement is not contemplated. Without going into details, Marlaska assured that this measure would not contradict Spain's asylum system.
From Rabat, the minister highlighted the “intense cooperation” between Spain and Morocco on migration. The meeting also discussed the improvements that Spain is making at the border crossings of Ceuta and Melilla, collaboration on civil protection matters and the balance of the latest operation across the Strait. The visit is “good proof of the relevant and fraternal relations in all areas,” said Marlaska, who reported that in 2023, 14 joint anti-terrorist operations were carried out.
