Critics Accuse Morocco of Using Irregular Migration as Political Leverage in Disputes With Europe

The Moroccan Makhzen regime continues to exploit irregular migration and the suffering of sub-Saharan African migrants as leverage to pressure Europe, seeking political gains and financial returns through illicit and opaque arrangements.

The use of irregular migration by Morocco has intensified in recent years, particularly amid growing internal crises and increasing international pressure to accelerate the decolonisation of Western Sahara in accordance with the international law.

Whenever it finds itself cornered, the Makhzen resorts to manufacturing diplomatic crises and adopting “hostile policies” wholly at odds with the principles of good neighborliness, staging transparent maneuvers both at home and abroad, in retaliation against all those who refuse to endorse its discredited policies, which rest on financial ambition, expansionist designs and repressive practices.

In this regard, Morocco relies on a strategy of “loosening surveillance,” “turning a blind eye,” or “threatening withdrawal” from border protection during diplomatic crises, amid inhumane practices and unparalleled repressive violations against African migrants.

Morocco faces accusations of being an untrustworthy and unreliable partner, particularly in Spain, after it mobilized thousands of migrants, including minors, and deployed them on multiple occasions to breach border lines.

A recent opinion poll in Spain has revealed shocking data regarding Spaniards’ perception of the security risks surrounding their country from Morocco, amid urgent demands for the necessity of not yielding to the Makhzen and taking serious measures to confront the “blackmail” of this rogue regime.

Human rights organisations state that the Makhzen’s policy forms part of a long-standing strategy aimed at transforming human suffering into a tool of political pressure, reflecting a systematic practice that treats human beings as instruments serving political interests, even at the expense of human dignity and regional stability.

Moroccan academic Mohamed Cherkaoui said on several occasions that Morocco’s creation of external crises with its neighbours is an attempt to conceal a deteriorating internal situation, describing it as a Moroccan political practice, through which the regime deflects attention from its development failures by activating the migration lever.

Blackmail Policy Through Drugs, Irregular Migration and Terrorism There is no doubt that this regime does not hesitate to distance itself from its African identity while exploiting the suffering of African migrants, who have become figures in political bargaining, even when the gains are stained with blood.

More alarming still is the regime’s determination to prevent African countries from getting a slice of the European funding “pie,” going so far as to gamble with the lives of dozens of Africans to pressure Madrid when Spain attempted to negotiate agreements with other African nations to curb illegal migration.

In this regard, any account of Morocco’s crimes against African migrants must include the Black Friday massacre of June 24, 2022, on the Moroccan-Spanish border, in which dozens of Africans lost their lives at the hands of Makhzen security forces.

To this day, the world’s collective memory retains harrowing images and footage of bodies piled upon one another, captured by cameras from across the globe.

In the eyes of the Makhzen, the African migrant has been reduced to a mere commodity on the market of international politics, no longer seen as a human being seeking asylum and humanitarian protection, but as a valuable “bargaining card.” According to testimonies gathered from migrants and Moroccan and international human rights organizations, the killing of dozens of African migrants in the massacre was “a calculated act bearing the unmistakable imprint of repression, designed to demonstrate to Spain that Morocco guards its borders effectively, with pressure and bargaining to follow.” Beyond the killings, dozens more were thrown into prison on fabricated charges.

The migration file, which Morocco has transformed into a marketplace for human exploitation, is rife with serious violations.

Through its security apparatus and propaganda machine, the Makhzen has been conducting a deeply racist campaign against Africans, all the more revealing given its humiliating failure to secure the Africa Cup of Nations through every illegitimate means available, a failure that lays bare the profound hypocrisy of this regime when it comes to its African identity.

In recent days, the Moroccan authorities have intensified operations targeting both documented and undocumented African migrants, resulting in arrests and searches described as degrading and harmful to human dignity.

What is beyond doubt is that Morocco has become a professional practitioner of blackmail and political maneuvering through the triad of “drugs, illegal migration and terrorism,” marketing itself as the “hired gendarme shielding Europe from these scourges and crimes,” of which it is, in reality, the very source.

Yet reducing human beings to commodities on the political marketplace represents a moral regression that evokes “long-gone eras of human enslavement that the world believed it had left behind.”