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30 000 waiting to enter EU
13/10/2005 08:45 - (SA)
Luxembourg - About 30 000 would-be immigrants are waiting in Algeria and Morocco to enter into the European Union, EU security commissioner Franco Frattini told interior and justice ministers meeting on Wednesday.
His speaking notes, made available to journalists, said that "intelligence suggests that around 20 000 immigrants are waiting in Algeria ready to begin their journey to Morocco and then Ceuta and Melilla with another 10 000 already waiting in Morocco."
"This is a clear indication of the mounting migration pressure on Morocco and Europe," they added.
Frattini's notes were from a briefing he gave the ministers about an EU technical mission to the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla in north Africa, which have been hit by waves of African would-be EU immigrants.
The ministers were meeting here for regular talks against a backdrop of growing controversy over frequently tragic attempts of African immigrants to storm the European Union's Spanish borders.
About 14 people have died in recent months while trying to break into the enclaves, some of them shot by Moroccan security forces.
Morocco has also come under fire for dumping hundreds of the immigrants in desert areas near the Algerian border.
The EU mission to Ceuta and Melilla did not aiming to probe the recent dramas there.
"I am going to propose that the EU organise a summit with Algeria and Morocco about the protection of their borders," Frattini told journalists on the sidelines of the meeting.
- AFP
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