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Morocco expels 49 aliens
24/10/2005 13:38 - (SA)
Kenitra - Morocco has expelled 49 illegal immigrants from Mali by military plane, Moroccan security forces said on Sunday.
The Malians were part of 73 illegal immigrants from countries south of the Sahara desert who had been expelled by Spain to Tangiers in October 7.
They were taken by bus to Kenitra military base north of the capital Rabat from where they were repatriated overnight Saturday by a "Moroccan C130 (Hercules) aircraft to Mali," the source said.
The 24 other illegal immigrants were taken by bus to the southern city of Agadir late on Saturday and will return to their country of origin from Guelmim in the southwest.
Two Spanish rights groups said on Friday they'd take their government to the European Court of Human Rights for the expulsion of the 73 Africans to Morocco.
Thousands of illegal immigrants try to enter EU
"If Spanish courts don't reply to us, we will appeal to the European Court of Human Rights" in Strasbourg, the non-governmental organisations SOS Racismo and the Spanish Commission for Help to Refugees (CEAR) said.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, who found six asylum seekers among the 73 immigrants - four Ivorians and two Malians - complained of being unable to access those people.
A 20-year-old Ivorian, Mohamed Traoure, said the group of 24 Africans from Tangiers in which he travelled had arrived at Guelmim in three minibuses.
"The group of 73 people was on hunger strike in Tangiers until Friday but we stopped the strike because Moroccan officials told us we'd soon get good news, and because some of us were very weak," he said.
Traoure said that the group of 24 migrants was made up of one Malian national, nine people from Guinea-Bissau, four from Guinea, four from Ivory Coast, one from Cameroon, one from Ghana, two from Gambia and two others from Benin.
Every year, thousands of illegal immigrants from north Africa and the Middle East try to enter the European Union via the Strait of Gibraltar between Morocco and Spain, the Canary Islands in the Atlantic, or Italy's long coastline.
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