Reporting that Morocco has replaced Libya as the primary migration transit point to Europe, internal German intelligence documents have revealed African migrants can secure ‘guaranteed’ passage to Europe for just 2,000 euros.
Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service (BND) has learned that a well-established smuggling network in the North African country offers migrants options beginning at 1,000 euros to reach European Union (EU) nations, according to the tabloid Bild.
With the lowest priced option, would-be migrants get three attempts to make it to Spain — which has seen illegal immigrant arrival numbers more than treble in the last year with tens of thousands of sub-Saharan Africans estimated to be waiting in Morocco before heading to Europe.
Smugglers, who BND intelligence reported were known to cooperate with Moroccan security forces and have contacts within the authorities, guarantee passage to the EU for a sum of around 2,000 euros.
For migrants who are able to pay 4,000 euros, the traffickers offer a so-called ‘VIP’ service transporting people direct from Mali to Europe in only six days, according to local media.
Since the beginning of this year, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reports that almost 40,000 migrants have made it illegally from Morocco to Spain, whose Socialist government appears not to be phased by the influx, claiming Europe should welcome mass migration from the world’s poorest and most violent regions.
Dismissing complaints over the government’s pro-illegal immigration overtures after outcry over the eviction of students from their university accommodation in Valencia to make way for African boat migrants rejected by Italy, foreign minister Josep Borrell implied that Spain should be grateful for the influx of third world migration.
“Europe’s demographic evolution shows that unless we want to gradually turn into an ageing continent, we need new blood, and it doesn’t look like this new blood is coming from our capacity to procreate,” he said.