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DE RUEHCL #0181/01 2581717
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P 151717Z SEP 09 ZDK
FM AMCONSUL CASABLANCA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 8510
INFO RUCNMGH/MAGHREB COLLECTIVE
RUEHBP/AMEMBASSY BAMAKO 0297
RUEHUJA/AMEMBASSY ABUJA 0210
RUEHNM/AMEMBASSY NIAMEY 0286
RUEHMD/AMEMBASSY MADRID 3887
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 0681

UNCLAS CASABLANCA 000181 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR NEA/MAG, PRM/AFR AND G/TIP 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PHUM PTER PINR MO AG
 
SUBJECT: AFRICAN MIGRANTS IN MOROCCO: ON THE EDGE OF 
EL DORADO 
 
REF: Algiers 00463, RABAT 00435 
 
------------------------ 
SUMMARY AND INTRODUCTION 
------------------------ 
 
¶1. (SBU) Every year thousands of sub-Saharan 
migrants enter eastern Morocco from Algeria intent 
on making the final push to Spain.  While some are 
successful, many more end up languishing in the 
transit towns or settling into longer term residence 
in Morocco.  Poloff visited the camps of clandestine 
migrants living in the forests of northeastern 
Morocco near the Algerian border and heard first 
hand stories of their migration and treatment by the 
authorities. 
 
¶2. The Government of Morocco (GOM) has responded to 
the influx of sub-Saharan migrants largely by 
detaining and expelling them into the desert area 
bordering Algeria without supplies or protection. 
The migrants, some of whom reportedly die in this no 
man's land, often end up returning to Morocco on 
foot.  The poor state of relations between Morocco 
and Algeria and the closed land border mean that the 
expelled migrants are caught in an impossible 
situation and frequently used as a political weapon. 
 
¶3. (SBU) This message, the first in a two-part 
series, will look at the realities on the ground for 
migrants living in the eastern city of Oujda, the 
means and routes of migration, and the GOM's 
expulsion policy.  A second message will examine the 
evolution of migration in Morocco, cooperation with 
European Union states, and the GOM's policies to 
stem the flow of clandestine migration. 
 
---------------------- 
MIGRANTS IN THE FOREST 
---------------------- 
 
¶4. (SBU) Oujda, situated just 14 kilometers from 
Algeria, is the principal border crossing and last 
stop for thousands of sub-Saharan migrants on the 
final leg of their overland journey to Europe.  At 
the edge of the city limits is an open air garbage 
dump bordered on one side by the aptly named 
neighborhood of Masakeen (the unfortunate ones) and 
on the other an extensive forest of pine trees which 
stretches for kilometers in all directions.  The 
forest shelters nearly a thousand migrants waiting 
for the opportunity or money to have smugglers 
arrange their onward passage. 
 
¶5. (SBU) The migrants live in destitute and crude 
conditions in the forests because they are within 
easy walking distance of the city and yet relatively 
safe from the reach of the Moroccan security forces. 
The pine trees, planted in symmetrical lines, sprout 
chest-high making long-range visibility nearly 
impossible.  As an additional measure, many of the 
camps employ dogs to alert the migrants to the 
arrival of the police.  Well-worn paths crisscross 
the forest and the first campsite is little more 
than a ten minute walk from the city.  Poloff, 
guided by Diacharis Poudiougo, a Malian doctoral 
student, and Amadou Dialli, a Guinean student, 
visited the camps in August to meet the migrants and 
see their conditions first hand. 
 
----------------------------------- 
RUDIMENTARY LIVING AND POLICE RAIDS 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶6. (SBU) Nigerians are the largest nationality 
present in the forests, but poloff also met with 
Malians, Burkinabes, Guineans, Cameroonians and 
Congolese.  Their living conditions are rudimentary 
and rough.  Plastic bottles, used to carry water 
from the city, and small metal pots for cooking over 
open fires are strewn alongside the accumulated 
litter of human living. Their makeshift shelters, 
constructed of tree branches with a plastic tarp for 
 
cover and bedding underneath, offer minimal 
protection in the winter months when the temperature 
fluctuates between 4 and 8 degrees Celsius.  In 
addition to the forest, a couple hundred migrants 
have taken up residence squatting within the campus 
of the Mohammed I University of Oujda.  These 
migrants, who tend to be rougher and more aggressive 
than those in the forest, are afforded a degree of 
protection since the security forces are reticent to 
enter the university grounds during daytime hours in 
order to avoid provoking the students by their 
presence. 
 
¶7. (SBU) The police make raids every three to four 
months into the forest and university campus, 
typically in the early hours of the morning.  They 
try to capture those they can though most migrants, 
alerted to their arrival, disappear deeper into the 
forest.  The security forces then ransack and burn 
the campsites and makeshift tents.  Poloff observed 
scorched rock, melted plastic and rubbish scattered 
throughout the forest providing plentiful evidence 
of numerous old campsites burned to the ground. 
Poudiougo contacted poloff to report that on 
September 8, police conducted an early morning raid 
of the campus and forest areas in which they 
arrested eight migrants and destroyed the campsites. 
 
------------------- 
NUMBERS OF MIGRANTS 
------------------- 
 
¶8. (SBU) The total number of sub-Saharan migrants in 
Morocco is difficult to know with any accuracy.  A 
study commissioned by the International Organization 
for Migration (IOM) estimated that there are 
approximately 10,000 to 30,000 illegal sub-Saharan 
migrants in Morocco at any given time.  The total 
number of migrants in Oujda, according to estimates 
by local NGOs, fluctuates between 1,200 and 2,000 
and has reportedly increased in recent years. 
Poudiougo estimated there are nearly 350 people 
living in the forest visited by poloff.  He also 
noted that there is another forest campsite with an 
additional 300 people nearby, and a transit camp 
near the Algerian border known as "smelly waters" 
with another 150-200 migrants. The university campus 
area houses approximately 120, though this group is 
among the most visible concentration of migrants. 
Although sub-Saharans are the clear majority, the 
NGO Association Beni Znassen for Culture, 
Development and Solidarity (ABCDS) reported there 
have also been cases of migrants entering from 
Algeria originating from Bangladesh, Syria, the 
Philippines, India, and Pakistan. 
 
-------------------- 
THE ROUTE TO MOROCCO 
-------------------- 
 
¶9. (SBU) The majority of migrants enter Morocco 
after having travelled a well-worn overland path 
that includes a stop in Gao in Mali for those coming 
from the western part of Africa and Agadez in Niger 
for more southern origins.  In Algeria the main 
route takes migrants through the town of 
Tamanghasset (REF A) and on to Ghardaia and 
eventually the border town of Maghnia.  The migrants 
spoke bitterly of the Algerian security forces whom 
they accused of being more aggressive and violent 
than their Moroccan counterparts.  The Algerians, 
they conceded, generally allowed them to pass with 
minimum difficulty knowing that their final 
destination is Morocco.  The border area between 
Oujda is relatively porous and smuggled goods help 
sustain the local economy (REF B).  Migrants 
reported that it is relatively easy to arrange 
transport and most pay between 50 and 100 euros. 
 
--------------- 
AND ON TO SPAIN 
--------------- 
 
¶10. (SBU) Once safely ensconced in the forests, the 
migrants typically look to pool their money and form 
groups of ten or more people and to make contact 
with a smuggler.  The fee depends on the means of 
transport but averages between 2,000 to 4,000 euros. 
Most opt for a sea crossing in "pateras" or small 
wooden boats launched from numerous small beaches on 
Morocco's Mediterranean coastline.  Others try to be 
smuggled across the border hidden in secret 
compartments and among the freight of a car or truck 
through the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla. 
Since 2000, the Spanish government has installed a 
sophisticated command and control system called the 
Integrated System of External Vigilance (SIVE) which 
consists of numerous radars and infrared cameras to 
track and intercept approaching ships.  The success 
of SIVE on the Andalusian coastline and the Canary 
Islands has made it even more difficult for the 
migrants to arrive undetected.  Despite the risks of 
getting caught, the migrants persist because they 
know firsthand the stories of people who have 
successfully made the passage. 
 
-------------------------------- 
EXPULSIONS: THE PING PONG POLICY 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶11. (SBU) Just as Oujda is the principal entry point 
for migrants, it is also the main point used by the 
GOM to expel migrants from Morocco.  While migrants 
detained in Western Sahara are expelled into 
Mauritania, all others are bussed to Oujda, 
consolidated at the commissary jail, and expelled to 
Algeria.  According to reports by migrants and NGOs, 
once the GOM has collected a sufficient number of 
prisoners, approximately twenty to thirty people, 
the migrants are driven to a Gendarmerie outpost 
near the Algerian border at nightfall. They are then 
stripped of any valuables, typically cellular phones 
and whatever petty cash they might have on their 
person, and instructed to walk into the desert in 
the direction of the Algerian border.  The Algerian 
border guards are generally aware of the expulsions 
by the Moroccan forces and they wait on the other 
side to discourage the migrants from reentering 
Algeria.  Trapped in a no man's land that stretches 
for several  kilometers, the migrants invariably 
turn around and walk back to Oujda by following the 
power lines.  Poloff spoke to a migrant who said he 
had returned that morning to the forest.  He had 
walked for two days to return to the forest after 
being expelled at the border.  Many of the migrants 
poloff spoke with shared a similar story. 
 
¶12. (SBU) The NGOs and migrants reported that women 
and children were also sent out into the desert 
without protection or supplies.  Juliet, a young 
Nigerian woman, told poloff that she was expelled to 
the border area during the winter of early 2009 
along with a group of people that included a woman 
who had recently given birth.  It was very cold, she 
recounted, and the child died from exposure on the 
return journey. 
 
¶13. (SBU) Some of the migrants claimed that the 
women were separated from the men and sexually 
assaulted by the security forces before being 
expelled.  While NGOs in Oujda expressed skepticism 
that the security forces engage in systematic rape 
of the migrants, they recounted that in 2006 there 
was a well-publicized incident of rape.  The 
migrants also confirmed, though none had first hand 
experience, the existence of roving criminal gangs 
and smugglers that operate within the no man's land 
of the border area and prey on migrants by robbing 
them of any remaining valuables and raping the 
women. 
 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
MOTIVATIONS TO MIGRATE AND IMPEDIMENTS TO RETURN 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
¶14. (SBU) In spite of the many hardships and dangers 
 
they face, the migrants continue to come, motivated 
by the simple fact that every week dozens of their 
compatriots successfully make the passage to Europe. 
The migrants told poloff that just one week before 
his visit 23 people, including four women, made it 
undetected to the Spanish coast.  Even those who 
have previously failed are determined to make it 
across no matter the cost or effort.  A Nigerian 
man, Francis, told poloff that he paid 3,200 Euro to 
be smuggled across the border hidden among produce 
on the back of a truck entering the Spanish enclave 
of Ceuta.  He was discovered at the border, brought 
to Oujda, and expelled to the Algerian border.  He 
returned to the forest outside of Oujda because in 
his own words, "I have no other choice."  Another 
Nigerian, Friday, told poloff that he spent nearly 
five years working in Madrid illegally before he was 
discovered and deported back home.  He made the 
overland journey across Africa for the second time 
and is now biding his time in the forest waiting for 
the next opportunity to cross. 
 
¶15. (SBU) The migrants repeatedly spoke in terms of 
absolutes and used words like "honor" and "shame" 
when discussing the imperative to reach Europe. 
Most told of selling family land or possessions in 
order to finance the trip and indicated that their 
extended family is depending on the success of their 
reaching Spain.  One man simply said, "I would 
rather die than fail." 
 
----------------------------------- 
TRAFFICKING: CONCERNS AND REALITIES 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶16. NGOs say there is little evidence that the 
migrants are victims of traffickers.  Rather, the 
vast majority of migrants move of their own 
volition.  Anecdotal evidence indicates that many of 
the migrant women engage in prostitution to make a 
living and some, especially in Rabat and Casablanca, 
have fallen into conditions of forced prostitution 
by criminal gangs.  On the Moroccan side there is no 
mechanism in place to identify trafficking victims 
or make an asylum claim prior to expulsion. 
 
¶17. (SBU) COMMENT: Morocco faces many challenges 
trying to cope with the influx of illegal migrants 
that can only be met by cooperating with its 
neighbors and regional allies.  Instead of fostering 
these partnerships, the GOM has engaged in a policy 
of forced expulsions which raise serious human 
rights concerns.  There is solid empirical evidence 
that the number of African migrants to Morocco has 
increased since 2000 and will likely continue in the 
future.  UNHCR (see septel) and some NGOs have urged 
the GOM to take control of the migration challenges 
it faces by adopting clear refugee and asylum 
adjudication procedures -- which would represent a 
crucial first step toward a policy that balances 
security and humanitarian concerns. 
 
 
ORDONEZ