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Algiers rules out irregular immigration as retaliation against Spain

2022-08-10T18:08:53.228Z


The arrival of migrants to the Spanish coasts from Algeria has fallen by almost 50%, despite a rebound in the Balearic Islands. The diplomatic crisis has not affected the control of flows, according to Interior, although returns are still suspended


The Civil Guard rescues a small boat on the Balearic island of Cabrera in July 2021.GUARDIA CIVIL (CIVIL GUARD)

Irregular immigration is not, at the moment, in the catalog of reprisals that Algeria is deploying against Spain for having supported Morocco in its solution to the future of Western Sahara.

Since Spain decided to support Moroccan sovereignty over its former colony in March, Algiers has frozen commercial transactions (in the process of normalization), has threatened to raise the price of gas and has taken its ambassador, but according to Spanish intelligence sources , continues to control irregular immigration and works to reduce migratory flows, especially with the expulsion of Sub-Saharans to Niger.

The diplomatic crisis has indeed put returns on hold, but despite this, the arrival of migrants to Spanish coasts from Algeria has fallen by almost 50% so far this year.

When it was made public that Spain was abandoning its neutral position on the future of the Saharawi people, whose main supporter is Algeria, one of the main concerns was what would happen to irregular immigration leaving the Maghreb country.

The Algerian route has been on the rise in Spain since 2019 and although Algiers, unlike Morocco, does not use boats as a measure of pressure, it was unknown how their anger would translate into the Alboran Sea.

More than four months after the start of the crisis, immigration is still off the geopolitical board.

"The diplomatic crisis has not had any influence on the migratory phenomenon, nor has it affected the control of irregular migration flows," say sources from the Ministry of the Interior.

The key will be in the behavior of the route in the autumn months,

More information

Algeria, another key partner in curbing irregular immigration

A restricted report from the European Commission, with data from Frontex, maintains that as of July 10, 1,955 migrants had arrived in Spain from Algeria.

That same report, as of July 4, 2021 —the closest date to which EL PAÍS has had access to compare relatively equal periods— raised to 3,875 people disembarked whose port of departure was the Algerian coast.

In other words, far from having an increase in migrants along the Algerian route, according to these data, there has been a drop of more than 49.5%.

This route is not only traveled by Algerians, but also by migrants of other nationalities such as Syrians or Bangladeshis, but they are a minority.

Another fact: last year around this time the majority nationality of the irregular immigrants who reached Spanish coasts was Algerian;

this year it is Moroccan.

Morocco and Western Sahara, controlled by the Moroccans, are by far the main departure points for small boats.

Rebound in the Balearic Islands

The rebound that has been seen in the Balearic Islands is very relative.

According to sources familiar with the flow of arrivals to the islands, the figures, as of August 8, have gone from 740 people disembarked in 2021 to 877 in 2022. This is a growth of 18.5%, but only 137 people.

The figures vary according to the source, but they remain within those parameters.

For the Balearic Islands, it is not a great surprise considering the strong upward trend of the last three years: in 2019, 507 migrants arrived;

in 2020 there were 1,464;

and in 2021 it grew to 2,402 people.

The total balance of irregular immigration to Spain continues to rise and as of July 31, 16,180 entries had been registered, according to the Ministry of the Interior.

It is an increase of 3.3%, but the Spanish authorities are concerned that if the trend continues, the figures of the last two years, which exceeded 40,000 arrivals, will be exceeded.

The main route of entry, however, is not the Mediterranean, but continues to be, as has been the case since 2020, the Atlantic, the route that leads to the Canary Islands.

This, which is the deadliest sea route to Europe and depends above all on the control exercised by the Moroccan authorities, concentrates more than 60% of all arrivals on Spanish coasts, according to sources from the security forces.

The arrivals of irregular migrants through the Algerian route, according to police sources,

Immigration, a matter of state

The migration issue is key for Algeria, regardless of the state of its bilateral relations.

For years, the Algerian authorities have considered the control of their borders, including the curbing of irregular immigration, a matter of national security.

In 2008, Parliament approved a law that punishes illegal departure from the country with sentences of three to nine months in prison.

However, the

harraga,

as young people who emigrate clandestinely are known in North Africa, are rarely imprisoned after being brought to justice.

Sub-Saharans have worse luck, who are not only persecuted and detained, but also forcibly expelled and abandoned in the Niger desert.

As reported by the Algerian press, in recent months the country has intensified the persecution of clandestine emigration for two reasons.

In the first place, the authorities have detected that a good number of people under a judicial search and arrest warrant had managed to escape across the sea.

Secondly, because after the rupture of relations between Algeria and Morocco, the greater militarization of the border has led drug traffickers to introduce drugs through boats.

Among the measures adopted to prevent migration, the construction of cement walls stands out at the usual points of departure in the west of the country, in the province of Oran.

Reprisals, in other areas, are still in the process of being resolved.

When on June 8, the Algerian Executive suspended the Treaty of Friendship with Spain, the financial bosses ordered its members to freeze transactions with all Spanish companies, which caused bilateral trade to suffocate.

However, on July 27, the employers reversed their position, and everything seems to indicate that commercial relations are normalizing.

“Some merchandise is still blocked, but it is because the government is on vacation and the regulations have not yet reached all the links in the chain,” explains Jamal-Eddin Bou Abdallah, president of the Algerian-Spanish Circle of Commerce and Industry. (CCIAE).

"We hope to return to normal in mid-August."

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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2022-08-10

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