Acting Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, has spoken to representatives of more than 50 countries in Africa and Europe for strengthening police and judicial cooperation in migration policy and border management.
The acting Interior Minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, has assured this Monday that it is "essential" to maintain and reinforce an "integral and loyal" cooperation between the countries of Europe and West Africa in order to face the migratory flows. The minister made this statement during the inauguration of the international meeting "Cooperation between Countries of Origin, Transit and Destination in the field of Border Management", which takes place in Madrid.
"The support of West Africa is essential to achieve our goal of addressing the migration challenge," he told representatives and experts from more than 50 countries in Europe and Africa, as well as the European Commission and the Economic Community of States. of West Africa, participating in this meeting.
Ministry of Interior
Grande-Marlaska, who opened the meeting together with the head of the Department of International and European Affairs of the French Ministry of the Interior, Jean-Marie Bruno; the Director General of Migration and Home Affairs of the European Commission, Paraskevi Michou; and the director of Migration and Border Surveillance of the Ministry of the Interior of the Kingdom of Morocco, Khalid Zerouali; has begun by assuring that "immigration is one of the issues of greatest interest at present, since it has become one of the main global challenges".
"The objective we share is that migration be legal, safe and orderly," he said. To do this, he has indicated that "it is necessary to develop a comprehensive, diverse and cross-cutting cooperation that helps to control migration flows" and that it must go through a "police and judicial collaboration as well as in matters of border management".
Grande-Marlaska pointed out that the Spanish experience shows that collaboration with countries of origin and transit is the best way. "Working together with neighboring countries, friends, allies and strategic partners such as Morocco, Senegal, Mauritania or Algeria allows us to achieve remarkable successes, not only in the fight against irregular immigration, but also in the fight against terrorism and other criminal areas" , he has affirmed.
Rabat process
The international meeting inaugurated today is part of the activities of the forum "Euro-African Dialogue for Migration and Development", also known as the Rabat Process, which emerged in 2006 with the aim, among others, of strengthening political and police cooperation international management of borders.
Grande-Marlaska has valued this forum of the Rabat Process, which has said that "it is the most consolidated and effective platform for exchange and cooperation that we have for the development of migration strategies." A tool that is helping to build "a relationship between Western Africa and Europe based on sincerity, loyal cooperation and shared responsibility".
Even so, the minister has advocated to continue working and to pay "special attention to the continuous changes to which migration is subjected" in order to remain effective.