Illegal emigration is at the heart of the official visit of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to Dakar. The latter met with President Macky Sall on Friday, April 9, 2021 to take stock of the number of migrants arriving in the Canary Islands since 2020. Since the Senegalese coasts are a strategic starting point for Spain, Pedro Sanchez wants to make Senegal “an essential partner in the management of the Atlantic route.” To this end, the two countries have concluded an agreement called “circular migration” or “seasonal”. It consists in organizing emigration in a legal and periodic manner. This will probably prevent risky departures aboard a canoe and regulate the conditions of stay of candidates for emigration.
The Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez and the Senegalese Head of State, Macky Sall, signed a convention on Friday, April 9 with the aim of definitively fighting against the illegal emigration of young Senegalese. In his speech, the President of the Spanish Government announced the signing by the two entities of “a joint declaration and two memoranda of understanding“. The objective of this agreement between the two countries is to strengthen “bilateral relations in this area” with Senegal in order to achieve “safe, orderly and regular migration”. Spain intends to give itself the necessary means to enforce these announced measures aimed at organising emigration candidates on a regular basis. In this sense, Pedro Sanchez praises the work of “the Spanish Police and Civil Guard deployed at the Autonomous Port of Dakar“, while stressing that “their collaboration with the Senegalese authorities is essential to fight on the front line against irregular immigration.”
Addressing the same point, President Macky Sall said that Spain is “a major partner with which (his country) maintains dynamic, trusting and multiform relations.” He also expressed his satisfaction with this migration convention, which now links the two countries in a solid bilateral cooperation.
In 2020, 23,000 migrants landed on the Spanish coast. This number, considered excessive by the authorities of the Iberian Peninsula, is 10 times higher than the previous year. The Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, therefore began a tour of several African countries, including this visit to Senegal, to find solutions to this phenomenon that has taken many sons from the African continent and thus shattered their dream of success and support for their families. 400 Senegalese migrants who have already joined Spain should soon be repatriated in the coming months.
