Morocco deports 22 migrants including Cameroonian

The Moroccan judicial authorities decided Monday to deport 22 African migrants to their countries of origin, according to a judicial source.

A Moroccan security officer drowned last Friday, trying to prevent them from crossing the Strait of Gibraltar, from the coast of the city of Tangier, in the extreme northwest of the country.

The source told Anadolu under the seal of anonymity that "the expulsion decision was taken by the Court of first instance of Tangier. The security forces had caught [migrants] red-handed while they were trying to leave the Moroccan coast in a rubber boat". The same source explained that these migrants, including two women, are originating from Côte d'Ivoire, Cameroon, and Guinea, stressing that they were not accused of the death of the security officer who drowned.

A member of the Moroccan security forces who witnessed the incident said that the Constable who drowned Friday had left his gun with his colleague with whom he was watching the beach "Playa Blanca", and was chasing the group who were in the sea, till about five in the morning (04:00 GMT).

He said that the rescue team managed to recover his body six hours after. In March, Moroccan security forces foiled two attempts by 40 Africans trying to reach the Spanish coast from Tangier.

According to Spanish statistics, in 2014 about 16 000 African migrants tried to infiltrate illegally to Melilla, scaling the wall of barbed wire that surrounds the city. 3600 migrants succeeded during the same period to enter the city.

Thousands of illegal migrants from sub-Saharan countries went to Morocco in recent years in an attempt to reach Europe, and Spain in particular.