As Morocco works to contain the wave of migrants, terrorists and traffickers see opportunity in the kingdom.
Illegal immigrants, drug smugglers and fleeing jihadists already threaten security in the Sahel region. And if indicators about the convergence of these groups turn out to be correct, Morocco faces a whole new set of problems.
In response to the looming crisis, Morocco has tightened controls on salafist jihadists and sub-Saharan migrants. Police have rounded up and deported hundreds of Africans, and increased vigilance at airports and along the eastern and southern borders of the country.
But a new issue is complicating efforts to strengthen security. Promises of immigration are enticing young people to get involved in international criminal networks, to be used as drug “mules”, or carriers.
After a Nigerian died at Mohammed V airport in Casablanca, and was found to have swallowed scores of plastic pill capsules, Moroccan authorities installed a medical unit with a body scanner.
Now every African suspected of carrying strange items inside his stomach or intestines gets a comprehensive x-ray at the high-traffic airport.
International drug traffickers are not satisfied with just using Morocco as a transit country to Europe; they are also seeking to convert the country into a market for their drugs, according to Oujda police official Mohamed Edjissi.
The point was driven home in March, when Edjissi’s team arrested fourteen African nationals in possession of cocaine, pills, and other contraband. The smuggling ring operated out of four apartments near Oujda University.
Traffickers and terrorists converge in Sahel
In addition to the risks of drug smuggling, Morocco is also worried about illegal migration networks that could smuggle fighters and suicide bombers into the national territory, especially from terrorist organisations such as Boko Haram in Nigeria, al-Shabab in Somalia and Ansar al-Din in Mali.
Moroccan authorities recognise that violent extremist groups are no longer just the problem of “other countries”.
In recent months, Fez extremists recruited young Moroccans for al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), another Morocco AQIM cell allegedly sent recruits to join al-Qaeda in northern Mali, an Ansar al-Sharia offshoot group in Rabat was accused of plotting attacks against government buildings and tourist sites, and another terrorist cell planned to attack public authorities.
“Morocco’s geo-strategic situation is an ideal rear base for al-Qaeda to carry out its plans in the Maghreb and Europe,” analyst Said El Kihel told Magharebia.
Now that the Mali militants have been routed by African and French forces, Morocco risks the infiltration of fleeing militants via illegal immigration channels.
Several reports have confirmed overlapping activities of terrorist groups with Sahel drug smugglers and human trafficking networks. Al-Qaeda and organisations that revolve in its orbit in the Sahel have reaped millions from protecting drug smuggling gangs as they cross the desert.
A large Moroccan drug-trafficking networkdismantled in 2011 was definitively linked to Colombian cartels and al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. The Moroccan government confirmed that al-Qaeda had provided logistical support and transportation to the dozens of cocaine traffickers in the ring.
According to Abdelfettah Belamchi, head of the Moroccan Centre for Development and Parallel Diplomacy (CMDPDC), the overlapping interests of illegal immigration networks, AQIM and its allies, and drug smuggling gangs is a real concern for Morocco, since it is a key departure point for Europe-bound African migrants.
And the conditions of lawlessness and chaos that have defined the Sahel region over the past decades have only allowed the problem to grow.
“There are no clear boundaries,” Belamchi says. “The same group that helps smuggle illegal immigrants by penetrating the border will smuggle goods across the same border and use the same networks. Their interests overlap with terrorist groups that are flourishing in the region.”
Associations assisting African migrants in Morocco have noticed heightened security surveillance and identity checks since the northern Mali conflict became an international military action.
“Since the beginning of this year, we see almost daily deportations of Africans,” says Hicham Baraka, president of the Beni Znassen Association for Culture, Development and Solidarity (ABCDS). His organisation monitors the situation of African migrants along Morocco’s eastern border with Algeria.
“Hundreds of African migrants live within communities on the border, or in hideouts amid the forests near the city of Oujda, which they call ‘Tranquilo’. They organise based on ethnic or linguistic origins. Each group elects a leader to negotiate and speak on behalf of them with the authorities,” he tells Magharebia.
The estimated number of African migrants illegally in Morocco is about 20,000. After fleeing wars, famines, and crises, they are now trying to get to Europe.
“But the Algerian army formed a bulwark difficult to breach. This prevented the arrival of refugees and militants from northern Mali to Morocco,” Baraka says. “They had to go to Mauritania, despite the difficulty of the journey and the long distance.”
Since the tightening of control by Algeria, the entry point of African migrants to Morocco moved further to the south, especially through the Western Sahara crossing post to Mauritania at Bir Gandus.
Concerns persist, however, that African clandestine migration channels may bring not just harragas but also drugs and weapons.
The Jihadist next door
And then there are the young salafists who left to fight and who will now return home saturated with terrorist ideology.
“This apprehension is legitimate,” says Mohammed Benhammou of the Moroccan Centre for Strategic Studies (CMES).
“The danger is real, due to the presence of Moroccans recruited to fight alongside these groups,” he tells Magharebia. He adds, however, that the “experience of Moroccan security services and their vigilance in dealing with such threats constitute a safety belt for the country”.
CMDPDC official Belamchi agrees that “the movement of people in the region can only be a source of fear and anxiety, especially after many years of activity of extremist groups in the region that enabled them to infiltrate the local population”.
At this point, he says, “controlling these activities requires greater co-operation, support and vigilance, not only from the countries directly concerned, but also from the international community”.
It is not just a local problem but one that concerns the international system as a whole, due to the implications of this threat to global security and stability,” he adds.
