EU may provide funds to Morocco, Tunisia to stop migrant flow

The European Commission is considering allocating additional funds to enhance border control in Morocco and Tunisia in a bid to stop the flow of migrants to Spain, a diplomatic source in Brussels told Sputnik on Wednesday.

On Monday, the European Commission said that it had received Spain’s request for additional assistance and was considering it at the moment.

On July 2, the European Union already provided additional 45.6 million euros (53.1 million dollars) to Spain and Greece, hit by the migrant influx.

“As far as I know, the allocation of funds to Morocco and Tunisia is considered as one of the ways to enhance border control in order to prevent migrants [from coming to Spain],” a source said.

The number of people who tried to reach Spain by boat and were rescued by the country’s rescue agency alone has dramatically increased, surging from just over 1,000 migrants in April to almost 6,400 in June, according to the latest figures from the Spanish Maritime Safety and Rescue Agency.

Since 2015, Europe has been experiencing its worst migration crisis in recent history, struggling to accommodate hundreds of thousands of people fleeing hostilities in the Middle Eastern and North African countries.