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Berlin / Madrid (dpa) – The head of the European Border Agency Frontex, Fabrice Leggeri, warned against a new main route for migrants to Europe . "If you ask me what is my biggest concern right now: then I say Spain," said the Frenchman of "World on Sunday".
In June alone, about 6000 irregular border crossings from Africa to Spain were enumerated in the western Mediterranean. "If the numbers increase as they did, this path will become the most important," said Leggeri.
About half of these people are Moroccans, the others are from West Africa, said the 50 – year – old man who has been running Frontex since 2015.
Up to now, the vast majority of people who crossed the Mediterranean landed in Italy . Spain only ranked third behind Greece. The latest figures from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) are turning out: while about 85,000 migrants arrived in Italy in the first half of 2017 and only 6,500 in Spain, in the same period in 2018, 16,700 in Italy and already in Spain 15,600. However, according to IOM statistics, the total number of refugees crossing the Mediterranean to Europe was slightly lower at 46,500 during the first half of the year, more than half.
According to Frontex, tugboat migrants in transit in Niger have recently made an alternative offer to travel to Libya: the route from the west via Morocco to Europe and therefore to Spain . Leggeri pleaded to advance international accommodation plans in Africa so that no one could badume that he would be taken to Europe after his rescue. "If this automatism does not exist anymore, we can fight successfully against the criminal business model."
The European Union had agreed at its summit meeting last week under the impression of the German government's crisis over a tightening of its asylum policy. Frontex needs to be strengthened by 2020 in order to close the EU's external borders. In the future, rescuers will be housed in central warehouses for collection in the EU. Similar bearings in North Africa are being tested.
"I think it's particularly important to pursue the destination of accommodation in North Africa," says Leggeri. "We must save people in distress, it will always be like that, but I find it very interesting that the EU Council made it clear that the landing could take place in non-European states."
The new Italian government has been following a difficult refugee policy for several weeks and has recently denied several rescue boats entry into a port. Spain then cleared Doctors Without Borders and "Aquarius" from SOS Mediterranean and "Open Arms" from the Spanish non-governmental organization Proactiva Open Arms to visit Spanish ports. The "Lifeline" of the German organization Mission Lifeline was cleared after a long patience in Malta.
IOM figures
Leggeri in the "world"
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