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ARCHIVED - Spain to resume repatriation flights for Moroccan immigrants
The flights from the Canary Islands were stopped almost a year ago due to Covid
After almost a year of non-operation, the Spanish government will resume repatriation flights of Moroccan immigrants arriving illegally to the Canary Islands.
Before Morocco closed its airspace to Spain in April last year to contain the spread of coronavirus, the government returned approximately 80 migrants to the capital of Rabat each week on four different flights. The repatriation agreement between the two nations was originally reached in December 2020 and required Spain to use Royal Air Maroc aircraft to fly the citizens back home.
According to a report by the European Commission, between December and April when the flights were operational, some 1,162 Moroccans were repatriated, whereas more than 11,000 migrants arrived in the Canary Islands throughout 2020.
Also of interest: Corvera airport resumes flights with Morocco
The Ministry of the Interior has always remained tight-lipped about the finer details of these flights, including their cost to Spain, and it has not yet been confirmed whether the Gran Canaria-El Aaiun route will be maintained.
In addition, an agreement is still pending regarding returning immigrants from the north African enclaves of Melilla and Ceuta, although some repatriations have taken place even when the airspace was closed, as was the case when 10,000 migrants stormed the Ceuta border in May last year.
In 2021 alone, according to the data from the National Coordination Centre of the European Border Surveillance System (Eurosur) in Spain, 31% of the 42,000 immigrants who arrived irregularly in Spain were Moroccan.
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