HIBAPRESS – Mohamed Zariouh
The far-right Vox party has returned to exploiting the security and immigration file in occupied Melilla, after its Secretary-General in the city and parliamentary coordinator, Javier Diego, came out on Friday to demand stricter measures against irregular immigration networks and drug trafficking, considering that the city is still experiencing a fragile security situation.
However, this discourse, as is the party's habit, did not lack an attempt to hold Morocco partly responsible for political and security issues, at a time when official data confirms that Morocco continues to mobilize its efforts to combat smuggling and cross-border organized crime. According to what the newspaper "elfaromellila" reported in its issue today, Friday, Diego considered that the city is "very fragile" due to its proximity to Morocco, and criticized what he described as a lack of political will and a shortage of human and material resources allocated to border control. He also went on to say that cooperation with Morocco remains "complicated," in a statement that carries, in practice, a clear political dimension that goes beyond talking about combating criminal networks to directing direct messages against the Moroccan neighbor. In contrast, official Moroccan data shows that the Kingdom has made security cooperation and the fight against drug trafficking a cornerstone of its strategy, with a focus on exchanging intelligence information, operational coordination, strengthening border control, and enhancing the capabilities of law enforcement agencies, especially in the face of cross-border organized crime. In the same context, the United Nations spoke about strengthening joint efforts between Morocco and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, while acknowledging that tangible progress has been made in confronting some manifestations of organized crime, human trafficking, and terrorism. This reflects that the Moroccan approach is not only based on field interventions, but also on international partnerships and advanced institutional mechanisms, contrary to the simplistic image that some party discourse in Melilla tries to market whenever it comes to Morocco. Thus, it seems that the Vox party is not only content with raising security concerns within occupied Melilla, but also invests this file in politically attacking Morocco and blackmailing the Spanish authorities, although the facts and official data indicate that the Kingdom is at the heart of regional and international efforts aimed at dismantling smuggling networks, drug trafficking, and irregular immigration… Between the discourse of party bidding and the field reality, the clearest truth remains that Morocco continues to bear a large part of the burden of combating these threats, not only in defense of its borders, but also for the sake of regional security as a whole.
