The Moroccan official’s statements came during the 25th International Conference of Border Police, organized from 26 to 28 October by the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex).
This logic ”integrates legislative and institutional reforms on several areas related to money laundering, crypto-currency, cybercrime, smuggling, dual-use products, the fight against trafficking, anti-terrorism and arms trafficking,” said Zerouali.
In this approach, the monitoring of borders remains, according to him, a major and central axis, especially since “the concept of borders has evolved and the new borders are reflected in a decompartmentalized connection between all countries even in the absence of physical borders or demarcation lines.
Hence the need, he said, a stronger cooperation between partners on smart borders and control mechanisms.
Returning to the actions of the Kingdom, the official noted that Morocco has established and maintains with an exorbitant cost a large-scale control of its Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts (two maritime facades over a length of 3,200 km) and its border routes to prohibit illegal cross-border activities.
“The surveillance system in place is not part of a logic of mono-targeting aimed only at the trafficking of migrants, but represents a shield against all forms of organized crime,” he explained.
The resilience of the surveillance system is also highlighted by its unique operational configuration, since not only does it against infiltration attempts on the national territory, but concomitantly it neutralizes, as part of its major contribution to regional security, attempts to cross-border trafficking, from the national territory.
“Through this strategy, tangible results have been achieved,” said Zerouali, referring in this sense the abortion of more than 560,000 attempts of irregular migration over the past decade, in addition to the dismantling of more than 2,000 networks of trafficking in migrants and human beings, the seizure of large quantities of drugs and the abortion of several terrorist projects planned both on the national territory and in several friendly countries in Europe.
“Border security and the fight against cross-border trafficking networks can not be the prerogative of a single country,” he said, noting that a “concrete, frank and loyal international cooperation is the keystone to hope for decisive results by giving the means to the ambitions displayed.
However, Zerouali said that multilateral efforts are “fragmented and do not allow an appropriate and timely response to current challenges.
“Our meeting today is an opportunity to explore ways to make the multilateral tool more effective and more concerned with the synergy between the different areas of cooperation between the two shores of the Mediterranean,” he said.
Zerouali has put forward, to this end, the strategic relationship and the plural partnership dimension of relations between Morocco and the EU, relations which are part of “a constant dynamic of strengthening.
