Morocco Arrests Over 100 Migrants Daily in EU-Backed Deportation Drive
Morocco has been conducting large-scale deportation operations targeting sub-Saharan African migrants since April 14, arresting more than 100 people per day, according to local sources cited by Middle East Eye. The crackdown, concentrated in northern Morocco near the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, involves raids on forest camps, forced transfers to the Algerian border, and deportation flights out of Casablanca. The operations are ongoing and have since expanded to the city of Tangier.
Moroccan human rights groups told Middle East Eye that around 800 people were detained in coordinated raids targeting forests between Fnideq and Belyounech — a stretch of northern Morocco where migrants shelter before attempting to cross into Spain. Sudanese and Chadian nationals were bused south and abandoned near the Algerian border. Migrants from Senegal, Mali, Mauritania, Burkina Faso and Guinea were placed on deportation flights departing Casablanca.
Witnesses described mass arrests, beatings, racist abuse and forced transfers.
The crackdown comes as the European Union prepares to implement its new Pact on Migration and Asylum, set to take effect in June. The pact is a sweeping overhaul of EU asylum rules that expands biometric surveillance, expedites deportation proceedings, and increases rejections on the grounds that migrants passed through a designated “safe third country” before reaching EU territory.
Morocco is included on the EU’s list of safe third countries, alongside Egypt and Turkey — nations that human rights organisations have accused of systematic abuses. If migrants transited through any of these states before arriving in Europe, their deportation from EU territory will be fast-tracked under the new rules.
“The EU wants to restrict people’s mobility as far down the route as possible — what officials describe as stopping migration downstream,” Frey Lindsay, a journalist on Statewatch’s Outsourcing Borders project, which monitors how the EU externalises migration control, told Middle East Eye. “It’s about exerting border control without getting your hands dirty, basically.”
Raids, Abandonment and Reported Abuse
Moroccan security forces have conducted regular raids on makeshift forest camps and transit points since April 14, with operations concentrated in the country’s north. Migrants who are not deported are typically relocated to the south in an effort to disrupt established transit routes.
Chad Boukhari, a journalist and member of Border Resistance — a grassroots collective that supports migrants across the Mediterranean — told Middle East Eye that detainees reported serious mistreatment. “According to migrants we have been in contact with, they were subjected to various forms of humiliation, insults and mistreatment by authorities,” he said.
Some migrants were abandoned near the Algerian border without food or water. Boukhari added that Algerian forces subsequently detained those individuals. “The Algerian army allegedly tortured many of them. Some individuals also found the bodies of other migrants in the desert,” he said.
Algeria expelled more than 30,000 migrants to Niger in 2025, according to the Alarm Phone Sahara monitoring group, with multiple testimonies of abuse and violence reported during those expulsions.
Middle East Eye contacted Algerian, Moroccan and EU authorities for comment. None had replied by the time of publication.
Ousman Sow, a Guinean man who spent a year in Morocco before crossing into Spain and now lives in Germany, described the pattern of operations firsthand. “They burned all of our belongings before driving us far away and dropping us off in remote areas without any possessions,” he told Middle East Eye. He also described how humanitarian visits often preceded raids: “Oftentimes, the Red Cross would enter the forest and provide us with blankets and clothing. But we knew that was always a bad sign. Shortly after the Red Cross visits, Moroccan security forces would appear, as if they were watching.”
EU Funding and the Externalisation Strategy
The EU has committed over €900 million under its Global Europe development instrument to fund migration control, border management and surveillance initiatives across North Africa, according to European Commission figures. That funding covers operations in Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and Algeria.
Morocco has also deepened its cooperation with Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, to intercept migrants before they can depart the North African coast. In 2025, Moroccan authorities thwarted 73,640 irregular migration attempts toward Europe, according to Morocco’s interior ministry — a slight decline from 2024, which the ministry attributed to shifts in migration routes.
Lindsay described the political stakes driving the EU’s posture. “The new migration pact is a really critical legislative package for Ursula von der Leyen and her cabinet. They need this to be a success politically, and will do everything to ensure the pact doesn’t fall apart,” he told Middle East Eye. “Member states have made it very clear that they are unwilling to go along with the pact if the European Commission doesn’t do everything it can to make sure people don’t arrive — and to deport as many people as possible,” he added.
Rights groups have pushed back sharply. More than 50 NGOs formally objected to the pact, arguing its expedited procedures deny migrants the right to a fair and thorough review of asylum cases, according to a joint open letter published by the Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants.
A Wider Regional Pattern
Morocco is not alone. Along the Balkans route, Croatian authorities have been documented violently pushing migrants back into Bosnia, preventing them from filing asylum claims on EU soil, Al Jazeera reported in April 2026. In Libya, EU-funded coastal authorities have been linked to human trafficking networks and reports of physical and sexual violence against detainees. The EU is now funding a maritime control centre in Benghazi aimed at intercepting migrants at sea — a project that requires cooperation with General Khalifa Haftar, who controls eastern Libya and has been accused of war crimes.
The new pact also introduces “return hubs” — third countries where rejected asylum seekers can be transferred and detained while awaiting deportation to their home countries. Proposed locations range from Bangladesh to Rwanda.
Since 2014, Human Rights Watch has documented repeated incidents in which Moroccan police beat migrants, destroyed their shelters, confiscated their possessions and expelled them without due process.
Sow put the dynamic plainly. “Whenever the political climate changes in Europe, you can feel it in Morocco,” he told Middle East Eye. “If Europe wants immigrants, Morocco is okay. If not, it’s hostile there.”
Background
Morocco serves as the primary transit country for sub-Saharan Africans attempting to reach Europe via the Strait of Gibraltar or the land borders at Ceuta and Melilla — the only EU territories with a direct land border in Africa. Migrants typically enter Morocco through Niger and Algeria, or via Mauritania, after crossing the Sahel. On June 24, 2022, at least 37 migrants were killed under disputed circumstances while attempting to climb the fence into Melilla, with another 70 still missing. Reports at the time indicated that Moroccan authorities buried some of the dead in unmarked graves. Amnesty International described subsequent investigations by both Morocco and Spain as inadequate. Ongoing conflict in Sudan and worsening instability across the Sahel continue to drive migration northward despite the escalating enforcement.
What Happens Next
The EU’s Pact on Migration and Asylum is scheduled to take effect in June 2026, at which point the expedited deportation procedures and expanded safe-country designations will formally come into force. The European Commission must still secure member state backing for the full implementation of the pact. Moroccan authorities have not announced a formal end date for the current operations, and Middle East Eye reported that enforcement activity has continued to expand to new locations, including Tangier. Rights groups including the 50-plus NGO coalition that formally opposed the pact have indicated they will continue to challenge the policy through legal and advocacy channels.
