Morocco deports 150 migrants
Morocco has sent more than 150 Africans back to Senegal, Mali and Gambia as part of a new policy to deport migrants trying to slip illegally into Europe.
The government sent 63 Senegalese to Dakar early on Wednesday on a Royal Air Maroc flight from the airport in Nador-Laroui, in northern Morocco, the official MAP news agency reported.
A day earlier, 96 Malians and eight Gambians were sent home from the same airport, which is near the small Spanish enclave of Melilla.
Migrants frequently use this North African kingdom as a transit point while trying to reach Spanish territory, fleeing poverty for a new life in Europe.
In a new immigration crisis, hundreds of Africans were picked up recently after attempting to rush razor-wire fences around Melilla and another Spanish enclave, Ceuta.
Morocco began a policy of mass deportations in response to the crisis, which turned deadly. Eleven people have died in recent weeks trying to storm across the border, some shot to death by Moroccan security forces.