{"id":20931,"date":"2018-11-03T09:22:50","date_gmt":"2018-11-03T09:22:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=20931"},"modified":"2018-11-03T09:22:50","modified_gmt":"2018-11-03T09:22:50","slug":"christians-in-egypt-prepare-to-bury-dead-a-day-after-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=20931","title":{"rendered":"Christians in Egypt prepare to bury dead a day after attack"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nPARIS: Morocco\u2019s Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita has warned Europe against developing a \u201cfortress\u201d mentality to immigration from Africa, while promising his country is doing everything possible to control its borders.<\/p>\n

\nMorocco, which nationals of many African states can visit without visas, has become a major gateway for sub-Saharan migrants into Europe, with 47,000 entering Spain from the north African coast in 2018, four times the number for the whole of last year.<\/p>\n

\nThe main reason is changes to smuggling routes favored by human traffickers, who have switched their operations progressively from Turkey or Libya to Morocco over the last three years.<\/p>\n

\nIn an interview with AFP, Bourita urged European politicians not to stoke fears about immigration and understand the problems of the poor countries where many migrants originate, as well as transit nations like Morocco.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cFor as long as Europe chooses a security approach, that will favor illegal migration. If Europe turns itself into a fortress, there will be new ways of getting round the controls,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\nThe EU has put forward a migration strategy that includes increased development aid to tackle poverty in Africa, but anti-immigration, far-right politicians promising to seal borders are gaining ground continent-wide.<\/p>\n

\n\"\"Italy\u2019s new populist government, which includes figures from the far-right League party, has taken the lead in promising mass expulsions and a new hard line on arrivals.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThere\u2019s no longer a cool-headed discussion to find solutions. People try to exploit the issue for gains elsewhere,\u201d Bourita said in a telephone interview.<\/p>\n

\nMorocco has found itself under increasing pressure from its European partners, particularly Spain, to help stem the number of migrants crossing into Spanish enclaves in north Africa or crossing the Mediterranean. It has also faced criticism for either doing too little to crack down on human traffickers, or for the methods used to move sub-Saharan Africans away from its northern coast.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cAll the pressure shouldn\u2019t be on transit countries, that European countries say from their own comfortable positions \u2018you are mistreating migrants\u2019 or \u2018you are too slack, it\u2019s a problem\u2019,\u201d Bourita said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\u201cEveryone has a responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nThe European Union agreed to an extra $62 million in funding for Moroccan and Tunisia border controls in August, while further aid is reportedly under discussion.<\/p>\n

\nSome analysts believe the kingdom is using its leverage with Europe behind closed doors.<\/p>\n

\nThis could see it demand more money for security and economic development, or by using the issue in other diplomatic negotiations such as over the status of the disputed Western Sahara region, or fishing and agricultural deals with the EU.<\/p>\n

\nIncreased arrivals from Morocco \u201cmay have been part of a Moroccan strategy to heighten the EU\u2019s awareness of its importance as a migration partner, with a similar aim of potentially increasing financial aid,\u201d analyst Chloe Teevan at the European Council on Foreign Relations wrote last month.<\/p>\n

\nTurkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has openly used this strategy, warning Europe repeatedly that he would open the gates and allow millions of refugees and migrants to start crossing the Mediterranean again.<\/p>\n

\nThe EU signed a controversial \u2014 but effective \u2014 deal with Turkey in 2016 tied to aid of \u20ac3 billion to stop the flow of migrants. It has also negotiated with Libya and Egypt, other countries with poor human rights records, with the same goal.<\/p>\n

\nBourita denied that Morocco was asking for anything in return for its cooperation with the EU, saying it was acting in its own national interest and to show goodwill toward its European partners.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThere is an offer from Europe to help us in our efforts and Morocco has taken note of this, but Morocco is not there to negotiate anything,\u201d he said, declining to talk about the amount of additional aid being discussed.<\/p>\n

\nMoroccan authorities say 54,000 attempts by migrants to cross to Europe were foiled between January and the end of August.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThings are going in the right direction,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are real results.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PARIS: Morocco\u2019s Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita has warned Europe against developing a \u201cfortress\u201d mentality to immigration from Africa, while promising his country is doing everything possible to control its borders. Morocco, which nationals of many African states can visit without visas, has become a major gateway for sub-Saharan migrants into Europe, with 47,000 entering Spain…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":20932,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}