Spain’s Interior Ministry has described cooperation between Madrid and Rabat on migration as “good,” while stressing that daily coordination and communication between the two countries’ security services remain in place.
The ministry made the comments in an email response to questions from Assahifa English about how it assesses Morocco’s cooperation in the fight against irregular migration and whether coordination and communication between the two countries are continuing.
In its response, the Spanish Interior Ministry said Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska had repeatedly highlighted “the good cooperation that exists between Spain and Morocco,” pointing to the importance of the bilateral partnership in addressing migration.
Grande-Marlaska also stressed the “permanent” cooperation and coordination with Morocco on Thursday, following the opening of a National Police station in Andújar, in Spain’s Jaén province, the ministry said.
According to the ministry, such cooperation has made it possible to return around 90% of people who entered Ceuta irregularly, while between 120 and 150 people are currently returning voluntarily each day.
The ministry said these figures were also “a manifestation of cooperation and coordination” between the two countries, alongside daily communication between Spanish and Moroccan security forces and agencies involved in combating irregular migration.
The Spanish ministry’s response comes as Madrid continues to emphasize cooperation with Rabat on migration and security, despite a political debate in Spain following the mass arrival of migrants in Ceuta in late July.
In recent weeks, some Spanish political and media voices have accused Morocco of being behind the mass movement of migrants and have called for the Spanish government to take a tougher position toward Rabat. The Spanish government, however, has continued to stress the importance of cooperation with Morocco while rejecting such accusations.
The exchange comes amid a wider debate over the state of Moroccan-Spanish relations. On Thursday, Morocco’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccans Abroad issued a statement addressing recent developments in relations between the two countries.
The Moroccan ministry said Rabat rejects attempts to turn Morocco into a “political card” in Spain’s domestic political disputes.
“Morocco rejects being a bargaining chip ahead of elections, just as it rejects being made a scapegoat in political score-settling” in Spain, the ministry said, criticizing what it described as the use of Morocco by some Spanish political and media circles “for domestic political purposes.”
The ministry also called for the preservation of the “capital of trust” built between Rabat and Madrid, saying Morocco had chosen to develop relations with Spain based on geographic good-neighborliness, political understanding, economic partnership and security cooperation.
