Mohamed VI ordena acabar con el problema de sus menores no acompañados en Europa

Morocco has issued a communiqué in which it establishes its commitment to resolve the situation of unaccompanied Moroccan minors on European territory. It also explains that cooperation mechanisms have already been established in this regard, with certain countries, in particular France and Spain, which have allowed the return to Morocco of several dozen minors.

This gesture on the part of the Kingdom could be a decisive step towards resolving the deep diplomatic crisis that is being experienced between Spain and the North African country over the case of Brahim Ghali, which experienced its moment of maximum tension with the entry of more than 8,000 migrants through the Tarajal border crossing in Ceuta, among them more than 2,000 minors.

This 'migration crisis' provoked a series of chain reactions from high-ranking EU officials, as well as from the various member states that showed their full support for Spain, and established that the borders of Ceuta and Melilla are also the borders of Europe. Morocco aims to reduce the climate of tension with this communiqué, in which it offers to collaborate with European countries on the issue of unaccompanied minors in an irregular situation.

1. His Majesty King Mohammed VI, May God Assist Him, has reiterated His Highest Instructions to the Ministers of the Interior and Foreign Affairs to definitively resolve the issue of unaccompanied Moroccan minors, who are in an irregular situation in some European countries.
2. His Majesty the King, may God preserve him, has stressed on several occasions, including to foreign heads of state, the Kingdom of Morocco's clear and firm commitment to accept the return of duly identified unaccompanied minors.
3. Cooperation mechanisms have been established in this regard, with certain countries, in particular France and Spain, which have enabled the return to Morocco of several dozen minors.
4. The slowness in implementing this cooperation is essentially due to the complex procedures in some European countries.
5. Morocco is the first country to be affected by certain circles in civil society, and even criminal networks, which use the so-called precarious conditions of minors as a pretext to exploit them.
6. Morocco is willing to cooperate, as it has always done, with European countries and the European Union to resolve this issue.
7. The Kingdom hopes that the European Union and the countries concerned will overcome the procedural difficulties to facilitate this operation.
8. Morocco regrets once again that the migration issue, including that of unaccompanied minors, is being used as an alibi to evade the real causes of the current political crisis with Spain, the origins and foundations of which are well known.
9. The Moroccan authorities reserve the right to give, in due course, appropriate responses to the unfounded accusations of the Spanish government.