Algeria Agrees To Open Borders To Deport Illegal Immigrants From Spain

Algerian authorities agreed to open the land and sea borders to deportation flights from this European country after they were frozen for months due to the spread of the Covid19 pandemic, the Spanish Interior Ministry said.

The Spanish newspaper “El Pais” reported that the Interior Minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, ended the procedures last week, in cooperation with the Algerian authorities to resume the deportation flights of Algerian illegal immigrants from Spain, which were frozen months ago due to the closure of the borders after the spread of the Covid19 pandemic.

According to the same sources, Algeria is the third country to accept the resumption of the illegal immigrants’ deportation flights from Spain after Morocco and Mauritania, which accepted the operation earlier, and which came as a culmination of the visits of Spain’s Interior Minister, and later, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, to Algeria.

“Algeria is currently the first exporter of illegal immigrants who arrived in Spain since the beginning of 2020”.

Spanish News Agency “Europa Press” reported that Algeria’s acceptance of re-opening its borders for the deportation of illegal immigrants from Spain was embodied a few days ago by a group of illegal immigrants who were deported from the temporary detention centre for foreigners in Barcelona, but did not indicate their number or the date of their flight.

Previous data of the Interior Ministry, published last October, in cooperation with the European Border Control Agency “Frontex”, shows that about two-thirds of those arriving in Spain since the beginning of 2020 are Algerians, indicating that 11.000 illegal immigrants of different nationalities arrived on the coast of the Kingdom until the end of last September, and two-thirds of them came from Algeria, which means that out of 11,000 illegal immigrants who arrived in Spain in 9 months of 2020, 7,200 of them are of Algerians, which represents 66% of the total number of illegal immigrants from various countries.

As for the Italian side, 1,379 illegal immigrants arrived since the beginning of 2020, according to official statistics of the Palazzo del Viminale published 4 days ago.

During the visit of Italian Interior Minister, Luciana Lamorgese, to Algeria in mid-September, it was agreed to accelerate the process of deporting Algerian illegal immigrants who arrived in Italy, but the process remained stagnant due to the closure of the borders and the spread of the Covid19 pandemic, while no details were received regarding the illegal immigrants’ file after the two days visit of the Italian Foreign Minister, Luigi Di Maio, to Algeria this weekend.