Migration has been at the heart of an interview conducted by Al Jazeera on November the 18th. Speaking to Morocco's border surveillance chief Khalid Zerouali, the Qatari online newspaper stated that the Kingdom foiled 70,000 illegal migration attempts in 2018 to stop the flow of sub-Saharan migrants. The Moroccan official hailed the efforts made by the country to stop migrants from entering Spain and criticized at the same time networks that «try and use Morocco as a platform for migrant smuggling». Responding to allegations, accusing the Moroccan authorities of «beating migrants and destroying their belongings», Zerouali said that «there have been no violations by the authorities». «We encourage migrants to settle in Morocco but we can't allow illegal behavior. We are tough on networks and on those who try and use Morocco as a platform for migrant smuggling», stressed the Moroccan official. Zerouali defended the raids conducted by the Moroccan authorities in the northern provinces of the country, indicating : «We have administrative police whose job is prevention». «If you have an apartment with 80 migrants with boats, engines and all the necessary equipment to conduct illegal migration, are we going to let them like that ?», Zerouali questioned. «We used to be a country of origin. Then we became a transit country. Now, because of our efforts, we have become a country of destination», clarified Khalid Zerouali, sharing the number of individuals prevented from entering Europe. He said that since 2004, Morocco aborted 500,000 attempts through sea and dismantled around 3,000 networks.
