Contrary to what has been reported by Spanish newspapers, the majority of asylum seekers in Spain fly to the country. In 2018, Spain was less generous with Moroccan asylum applicants, rejecting most of their requests. In 2018, only 55 Moroccan nationals were granted asylum by Spain. The number, shared Wednesday by El Pais, represents 10% of the asylum requests submitted in 2018 by Moroccans in the Iberian country. According to the Spanish newspaper which quotes statistics made public by the Ministry of the Interior of Spain, 595 Moroccan asylum requests were rejected by Madrid in the same year. Most of these applicants are individuals who have been struggling with their sexual orientation and gender identity in the Kingdom. Other asylum seekers are coming from the Rif region, where they have been, reportedly, «repressed by the Moroccan government», wrote El Pais. In October 2018, Andalusian channel Canal Sur reported that forty Moroccan nationals who reached Spain through the Mediterranean sea had applied for asylum. These applicants, according to the same source, identified themselves as «Hirak activists who fled the repression of the Moroccan authorities in the region». Spain becomes less generous with Moroccan asylum seekers El Pais indicates that Spain's response to the 55 asylum requests submitted by Moroccans contradicts the comments of the country's Secretary of State of Migration Consuelo Rumi. The latter claimed before that «people from Morocco were not granted asylum or refuge». «We know that the majority of them submit these requests only to avoid expulsion», said Consuelo Rumi on October the 3rd during a visit to Rabat. Indeed, the country grants every asylum seeker a one-year residence permit to catch up on paperwork needed to fully submit asylum applications at the Interior Ministry. This allows them to avoid direct expulsion to the Kingdom. However, in October, El Pais stated in an article that the number of Moroccan nationals who applied for asylum in Spain grew significantly in the first eight months of 2018, moving from 531 applications registered in 2017, to 765. Migrants from Morocco are now better informed «by lawyers» about the advantages of applying for asylum, a source at the Unified Police Union told El Pais.
