Morocco foils illegal immigration attempt, arrests 5 smugglers

Source: Xinhua| 2019-10-16 23:52:37|Editor: huaxia
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RABAT, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) -- Morocco foiled early Wednesday an illegal immigration attempt and arrested five smugglers in the city of Sale near the capital Rabat, the Moroccan police said in a statement.

A total of 22 migrants, including a minor, were prevented from taking a small boat abroad, the statement said.

The migrants gave money to the arrested smugglers in exchange for migration to Spain by sea, it added.

The police also seized 21 life jackets, a quantity of fuel, night lighting equipment and five knives.

A total of 19,604 migrants had illegally reached the Spanish coasts since the beginning of the year until Oct. 14, against 43,467 migrants during the same period of 2018, a drop of 54.9 percent, said a report by the Spanish Interior Ministry on "illegal immigration 2019" published on Wednesday. Enditem

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