Ceuta & Melilla: New cooperation
01 November 1997
Morocco is increasingly co-operating with the Spanish authorities in policing the Ceuta and Melilla borders. In the first six months of this year the Spanish government processed 271 applications for the repatriation of immigrants, in accordance with the Spain-Morocco Readmission Agreement. Of these, Morocco accepted only one and rejected 200. That attitude has since changed significantly, according to the Spanish government delegate in Melilla, Enrique Beamud: "They are now readmitting every Central African person detected at the border". Meanwhile, works are continuing to seal the border around both towns. In early October the army started patrolling the Ceuta border, as it has been doing in Melilla for some months, to facilitate the completion of the works. In Melilla a border ring road has now been completed and a double fence two metres high is being built, along with a one-metre wall, lighting and video surveillance. The works are due to be finished in January 1998.