Spanish Interior minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, visited, Thursday, Rabat to discuss cooperation between Morocco and Spain in the fight against irregular migration and terrorism. In a statement to the press after a meeting with Interior minister Abdelouafi Laftit, the Spanish official said that the two countries had managed to halt the surge of irregular migrants by more than 50 percent thanks to their «important cooperation» in the fight against human trafficking networks. The Spanish official recalled that both parties have carried out rescue operations at sea of would-be migrants, adding that Morocco and Spain are taking a preventive approach through the dismantling of a significant number of criminal and irregular migration networks. Regarding counter-terrorism, Grande-Marlaska highlighted bilateral cooperation in this area, recalling that Rabat and Madrid had jointly conducted more than 20 operations in that regard since 2014. Grande-Marlaska also referred to the efforts made to ensure security in both countries through the fight against drug trafficking and criminal networks. For his part, Laftit said that the meeting was an opportunity to take stock of cooperation between the two kingdoms over the past year and the prospects for cooperation in the coming year. «We are in perfect harmony on almost all points, and we continue to work together for cooperation in all areas of interest to our two countries», the Moroccan minister underlined.
