Morocco Rebuffs EU Request to Re-Admit Third-Country Migrants

Migrants are seen in a military camp where they are staying after reaching Spain's Canary Islands, in Las Palmas, Spain, November 20, 2020. (Reuters)
Migrants are seen in a military camp where they are staying after reaching Spain's Canary Islands, in Las Palmas, Spain, November 20, 2020. (Reuters)
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Morocco Rebuffs EU Request to Re-Admit Third-Country Migrants

Migrants are seen in a military camp where they are staying after reaching Spain's Canary Islands, in Las Palmas, Spain, November 20, 2020. (Reuters)
Migrants are seen in a military camp where they are staying after reaching Spain's Canary Islands, in Las Palmas, Spain, November 20, 2020. (Reuters)

Morocco has rebuffed a European Union request to take back third-party nationals who reach Europe from the North African kingdom, its interior ministry said on Tuesday.

EU migration commissioner Yiva Johansson visited Rabat this month to seek a readmission agreement allowing the 27-nation bloc to return migrants to Morocco in the face of a surge in arrivals to Spain’s Canary Islands.

The request was rejected, the Moroccan ministry said. “Morocco is not into the logic of subcontracting and insists that each country accepts its responsibility towards its nationals,” Moroccan migration and border control chief at the Interior Ministry Khalid Zerouali said by email.

Morocco readmits an average of 15,000 of its own citizens who are sent home by the EU every year. It also agreed in 1992 to accept third-party nationals from the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, providing it is within 24 hours.

Morocco has stopped 32,000 people from crossing into Europe - located as close as 14 km (9 miles) away across the Strait of Gibraltar - this year, Zerouali said. That compares to 74,000 attempts last year.

Tighter Moroccan patrols along the northern coast and the effect of COVID-19 border closures have pushed trafficking networks to shift their routes towards the Canary Islands, 1,400 km (870 miles) off the African coast, Zerouali said.

The number of migrants illegally reaching the Canary Islands this year - 20,000 - was 10 times larger than last year, according to Spanish authorities. Johansson said half those arrivals were thought to have come from Morocco.



Houthis Believed to Be Holding Six Crew from Greek Ship Sunk in Red Sea

A screen grab taken from a handout video released by the Houthis military media center on 08 July 2025 shows Houthi fighters aboard the Liberian-flagged bulk carrier, the Magic Seas, in the Red Sea off the port city of Hodeidah, Yemen, 06 July 2025. EPA/HOUTHIS MILITARY MEDIA CENTER / HANDOUT
A screen grab taken from a handout video released by the Houthis military media center on 08 July 2025 shows Houthi fighters aboard the Liberian-flagged bulk carrier, the Magic Seas, in the Red Sea off the port city of Hodeidah, Yemen, 06 July 2025. EPA/HOUTHIS MILITARY MEDIA CENTER / HANDOUT
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Houthis Believed to Be Holding Six Crew from Greek Ship Sunk in Red Sea

A screen grab taken from a handout video released by the Houthis military media center on 08 July 2025 shows Houthi fighters aboard the Liberian-flagged bulk carrier, the Magic Seas, in the Red Sea off the port city of Hodeidah, Yemen, 06 July 2025. EPA/HOUTHIS MILITARY MEDIA CENTER / HANDOUT
A screen grab taken from a handout video released by the Houthis military media center on 08 July 2025 shows Houthi fighters aboard the Liberian-flagged bulk carrier, the Magic Seas, in the Red Sea off the port city of Hodeidah, Yemen, 06 July 2025. EPA/HOUTHIS MILITARY MEDIA CENTER / HANDOUT

Yemen’s Houthi forces are believed to be holding six of the 22 crew of a Greek ship that the militia attacked and sank in the Red Sea earlier this week, maritime security sources said on Thursday.

The Houthis had said on Wednesday they had rescued a number of the ship's crew, without providing further details, Reuters reported.

Maritime security sources said that rescuers pulled three more crew members and a security guard alive from the Red Sea on Thursday, a day after the Houthi militants sank the Greek ship Eternity C and said they were holding some of the crew still missing.

This brings the total number of those rescued so far to 10, including eight Filipino crew members, one Indian and one Greek security guard. The people found on Thursday had spent more than 48 hours in the water. Another 11 people are still missing.

"This fills us with more courage to continue to search for those missing, as the Greek vessel operator requested, and shows that our search plan was correct," said Nikos Georgopoulos, an official at the Greece-based maritime risk firm Diaplous.

Eternity C is the second Greek bulk carrier sunk this week by the Iran-aligned Houthi militia in Yemen. The attacks, which Houthis say are an act of solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza war, have ended months of calm in the area.

The United States' Mission in Yemen has accused the Houthis of kidnapping crew members and has called for their immediate release.

On Wednesday, the Houthis' military spokesperson said in a televised address that the Yemeni navy had "responded to rescue a number of the ship's crew, provide them with medical care, and transport them to a safe location".

The Eternity C sank on Wednesday days after Houthis hit and sunk the Magic Seas, reviving a campaign launched in November 2023 that has seen more than 100 ships attacked.

Both of the vessels hit this week flew Liberian flags and were operated by Greek companies. All crew from the Magic Seas were rescued before it went down.

Eternity C was first hit on Monday with sea drones and rocket-propelled grenades fired from speed boats. Four people are presumed dead, with maritime security sources saying they were killed in the attacks. If confirmed, the deaths would be the first fatalities in the area since June 2024.

Following a second attack on Tuesday morning, the crew were forced to jump into the water. Rescuers have been searching for them since Wednesday morning.

The vessel's operator, Cosmoship Management, has not responded to Reuters' requests for comment.