Morocco intensifies migration raids near European border
Tangier forest, where migrants sleep en route to Europe, and where Moroccan police routinely carry out raids. Faras Ghani, Al Jazeera
Moroccan authorities have intensified raids and deportations targeting Sub-Saharan African migrants, with hundreds of arrests reported in recent weeks, as reported by Middle East Eye on May 22nd.
The operation remains ongoing as Morocco increasingly takes on the proxy force role for European border enforcement.
Recent operations have concentrated heavily on Tangier and northern migration routes.
As Sudan’s war continues and instability increases across Africa, migrants cross the Sahel to reach Morocco, often crossing through Niger into Algeria or Mauritania to Morocco.
Some attempt the journey to Europe through the Strait of Gibraltar; others try to scale the wire fence separating Morocco from Spain’s Ceuta and Melilla enclaves.
Upon entering Morocco, most migrants spend months to years sleeping in remote forests and scrublands. Humanitarian groups attempt to provide aid, but these endeavours are often stifled by the authorities, as reported by Middle East Eye.
Moroccan human rights groups estimate roughly 800 people were detained during forest raids between northern Morocco’s Fnideq and Belyounech, where people shelter en route to Europe.
Mass arrests, beatings, racial abuse, and forced transfers toward the Algerian border are frequently reported as conduct in Morocco’s border control.
At the border, migrants had no access to food or water and were detained by Algerian forces. Algeria itself expelled over 30,000 migrants to Niger in 2025, who were often abandoned in remote desert areas of the Sahara.
The 2022 Melilla massacre epitomises the aggressive approach of Moroccan authorities, where at least 37 migrants were killed under disputed circumstances while trying to climb the fence separating European territories from Africa.
In the arrests, Sudanese and Chadian detainees were transported south on buses, where they were abandoned near border zones.
Detainees from countries including Senegal, Mali, Mauritania, Burkina Faso, and Guinea were deported on flights from Casablanca.
According to Morocco’s Interior Ministry, authorities blocked 73,640 irregular migration attempts toward Europe, a slight decrease from the 2024 numbers attributed to alternative migration routes.
Morocco’s intensified migration control coincides with the EU’s new Pact on Migration and Asylum.
Middle East Eye reported that the EU has allocated over €900 million to its Global Europe development instrument for stricter migration control, border management, and surveillance initiatives.
This new migration pact seeks to reorganise the current immigration system by accelerating asylum case proceedings and deportations, expanding biometric surveillance and increasing rejections.
According to Middle East Eye, asylum applications are increasingly being rejected if applicants passed through a designated “safe third country,” including Morocco, Egypt, and Turkey.
EU-Moroccan ties have strengthened under the bloc’s migration pact, strategically outsourcing European border control to prevent migrants and asylum seekers from reaching European territory.
Frontex, the EU border agency, has also been intensifying its alliances with Morocco as part of this outsourcing to stop migrants from leaving the coast of North Africa.
Migration enforcement has become central to Morocco’s relationship with the EU, as Morocco acts as a buffer zone for EU borders.
This allows Rabat to gain diplomatic leverage and strengthen support for policies–including Moroccan sovereignty over the Western Sahara.
Middle East Eye, Maghrebi.org
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