A municipal councilor from Morocco arrived in Granada, southern Spain, at the weekend after setting out from Nador with a group of irregular migrants aboard a makeshift boat, the news site El Faro de Ceuta reported on Saturday (April 20), citing a Moroccan digital news site 'ariffino.net'.

El Faro added that the departure of the politician, who was not named, had hit the local community hard. "Behind those who escape from this country there are cases of real hardship, but there are also professionals who leave jobs that gave them a stable income but who abandon Morocco because no there is no future for them here," the news site wrote. 

Omar el Naji from the Moroccan Human Rights Association (AMDH) in Nador agrees that such incidents have a significant impact: "The symbolism is strong. People ask themselves: 'If an elected official leaves, why shouldn’t I, as a normal Moroccan, leave?'," Omar Naji told InfoMigrants.

He also confirmed that this is not the first time an elected official from Nador province has boarded a migrant boat to Spain. "It’s true, there have already been four departures of municipal politicians to Spain in the past year and a half," he said.

Also read: Top-flight footballer among migrants to leave Tunisia

10,000 euros for the journey

The westernmost part of the Mediterranean – known as the Alboran Sea – is a route used mainly by Algerian and Morrocan migrants who set sail aboard small fiberglass boats headed for the south of Spain.

In recent times, prices for the crossing have "skyrocketed," according to Omar Naji.

"I met a mother yesterday [April 21] who told me that her son had left Beni Chiker [near Nador] for Andalusia. She never heard from him after that. She had paid 10,000 euros for the trip," he said.

"She told me: 'I lost my child and all the money I had borrowed. My son will not come back and now I have to repay this sum'."

The NGO Caminando Fronteras says that this route, which is closely monitored by the Moroccan coast guard, "really consolidated in 2022." And even though the distance is shorter than that of other migration routes in the Mediterranean, the crossing remains just as dangerous, and there are many shipwrecks.

In addition to Moroccan citizens, many sub-Saharan Africans transiting through Morocco also attempt the sea crossing. A large number of boats never reach the open sea and are stopped by the authorities. In 2023, at least 75,000 migrants were intercepted, according to the Moroccan military.

Already this year, three people have died and seven are still missing after their boat sank off the coast of Motril, southern Spain, on March 22. The boat had departed from Algeria. 

On February 27, eight people died when their boat sank after leaving Beni Chiker.

According to the AMDH in Nador, four of the victims have been identified.

Adapted from InfoMigrants French

Also read: Morocco: 'Find our children', say families of missing migrants