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.



US Private Security Contractors to Oversee 2nd Phase of Ceasefire in Gaza

People walk next to a sign congratulating US President Donald Trump on his victory in the presidential election in central Jerusalem. (AFP)
People walk next to a sign congratulating US President Donald Trump on his victory in the presidential election in central Jerusalem. (AFP)
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US Private Security Contractors to Oversee 2nd Phase of Ceasefire in Gaza

People walk next to a sign congratulating US President Donald Trump on his victory in the presidential election in central Jerusalem. (AFP)
People walk next to a sign congratulating US President Donald Trump on his victory in the presidential election in central Jerusalem. (AFP)

The administration of US President Donald Trump has hired private US security contractors to inspect Palestinian vehicles that move from southern to northern Gaza and to ensure no rockets or other heavy weapons are being transferred past the Netzarim Corridor.

Two officials familiar with the matter told The New York Times that one of the firms assigned to the corridor is Safe Reach Solutions, which conducts logistics and planning. The company will oversee operational management of the crossings.

The second company is UG Solutions — a US private security company that operates armed guards around the world. Some of the guards are Americans who served in US military special forces, a source familiar with the issue said.

A third Egyptian security company, which has been approved by the Egyptian intelligence service, will also deploy security guards to Gaza.

The US companies will operate in Gaza as part of a multinational consortium that has been established under the Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal and negotiated to solve a key sticking point around the movement of displaced Palestinians back to northern Gaza.

Hamas had refused that Israel handle the inspection operation.

The New York Times said under the deal, the private contractors are set to begin checking Gazan vehicles heading north as soon as Saturday, when Hamas is set to release four additional hostages.

According to officials, the companies will remain two to six weeks in the Gaza Strip. It is not yet clear who will fund the contractors’ deployment.

Israel hopes that the private security contractors will eventually form the nucleus of a larger international force that will run Gaza in the future, two of the officials told The Times.

Witkoff visits region

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff will visit Saudi Arabia next week and will then head to Israel.

Witkoff’s trip to Israel is expected to focus on negotiating the second phase of the hostage release and ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, the first stage of which took effect on Sunday, several sources said.

“I’m actually going to be going over to Israel. I’m going to be part of an inspection team at the Netzarim Corridor, and also at the Philadelphi Corridor,” Witkoff said Wednesday in an interview with Fox News.

“That’s where you have outside overseers, sort of making sure that people are safe and people who are entering are not armed and no one has bad motivations,” Witkoff added.

The first stage of the ceasefire is meant to last six weeks. By day 16 - Feb. 4 - Israel and Hamas are due to start negotiating the second phase of the ceasefire, whose stated aim is to end the war.

A third phase is expected to start Gaza's reconstruction, overseen by Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations.

Gaza rule

President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming national security adviser said on Friday that the US has assured Israel that if Hamas runs afoul of a Gaza ceasefire deal, “we will be with them.”

Michael Waltz told CNN that the Trump administration will support Israel as it is “going to do what it has to do” to ensure Hamas never rules the Palestinian territory again.

On Thursday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio held his first call with Israeli counterpart Gideon Saar, a day after his call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The State Department's statement following the call was similar to the statement issued following Rubio and Netanyahu’s call. The US diplomat stressed the need to continue the flow of aid into Gaza.

He also commended the foreign minister on Israel’s successes against Hamas and Hezbollah and the ongoing efforts to implement the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon.

Rubio then conveyed the mutual understanding that the pursuit of peace in the region requires addressing the threats posed by Iran.