THE ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF IMMIGRATION : Products of counterfeiting and stowaways stuck in lorries, both are nightmare of businessmen settled in the North of Morocco. Counterfeiting causes an average loss of 40 millions DH every day to the Moroccan economy, the equivalent of the total of merchandises which cross illegally the frontier. Consequently, 200.000 jobs disappeared due to this scourge and the first victims are young people whom think then to emigrate. The illegal emigration has a deep effect on the economy : the candidates to the emigration destroy merchandises in the lorries especially the ready-made sector. The IRU "Union International de Transport Routier" asked the Ministry of Transport and Merchant Navy to explain the complaints of the international transporters. The government is accused to be too lax with the illegal emigrates. The transporters say that they are confronted to serious problems. On the one hand, the stowaways do damage when they introduce themselves into lorries, they smash open the roof to break into transporters lorries. After, they destroy merchandises to have more place and relieve themselves there. Sometimes the illegal emigrants threat the lorry's driver with a knife. Saturday, the expeditions day become a nightmare for transporters. On the other hand, when the merchandises are destroyed, the customers refuse all the cargo. So, the transporters are obliged to pay back the damage. Moreover, they get a 10.000 FF fine in France for each case. The more surprising is that there is no law for the illegal emigration, so when the stowaways are arrested, we release them. Consequently, Morocco and the Maghreb are classed as a risky zone and it is a bad think for our political relationship with the other countries, specially the European one. Indeed, the tension climb between Madrid and Rabat. The Spanish government accuse the Moroccan one of negligence about the subject of illegal immigration. He want him to be more collaborative and to take efficient measures to fight against the massive depart of the stowaways to the Spanish cost and to the Canaries islands. Morocco declined all responsibility for illegal immigration towards Europe, calling the problem a cross-border one that requires more cooperation on the part of the Europeans. Morocco pretend that responsibility must be shared out. Spain think that the Moroccan government has a voluntary attitude of laxity : they pretend that with the higher demographic rate, Morocco is enjoyed to see the depart of a part of the population even if it is clandestine. Moroccan foreign affairs and cooperation secretary of state, Taieb Fassi Fihri told that the European Union and the countries of the north are called to start cooperation and constructive dialogue to curb the plague through global development and investments. The official agency of press "Agence Officielle de Presse" underlined the Moroccan government's keenness on fighting the problem. He recalled, in this connection, the creation of an inter-ministerial commission, chaired by the Prime Minister, to limit the impact of the phenomenon. In Spain, illegal immigrants work on the side and encourage the underground economy that the authorities there try hardly to fight. But we must now that only a part of the illegal immigrants are Moroccan and the others are from the other African countries. Indeed, illegal immigration is a regional and a cross-border problem, and Morocco is a transit country for illegal immigrants coming for neighbouring countries, especially sub-Saharan ones. To be continued...
