RABAT, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Moroccan authorities have thwarted more than 54,000 illegal immigration attempts since the beginning of 2018, Morocco's official MAP news agency reported on Friday.
Citing government spokesman Mustapha El Khalfi, the report said that security services have also dismantled 74 criminal human trafficking networks and seized 1,900 boats.
El Khalfi said that the North African kingdom organized two operations to regularize the legal and administrative situation of illegal immigrants in 2014 and 2017, noting that these operations have led to the regularization of the legal situation of approximately 50,000 migrants, 90 percent of them from sub-Saharan Africa.
Some 22,000 illegal immigrants have benefited from operations of voluntary return to their countries of origin since 2014, including 1,400 in 2018, the minister said.
El Khalfi also stressed that his country cannot let its territories serve as a shelter for human trafficking networks and refuses to play the policeman role in the region.
