Morocco stopped 78,685 illegal aliens from crossing into European Union territory in 2024, up 4.6 per cent from a year earlier, the Interior Ministry said on Thursday.
The figures highlight, "growing migratory pressure in an unstable regional environment", the ministry said in response to questions emailed by Reuters.
Among the migrants, 58 per cent were from West Africa, 12 per cent from North Africa where Morocco is located, and nine per cent from East and Central Africa, it said.
Years of armed conflict across Africa's Sahel region, unemployment and attractive welfare packages upon arrival are among the reasons driving illegal immigrants towards Europe.
Morocco and neighbouring EU member Spain have strengthened cooperation against undocumented migration since they patched up a separate diplomatic feud in 2022.
The North African country has for long been a major launch pad for African migrants aiming to reach Europe through the Mediterranean, the Atlantic or by jumping the fence surrounding the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla in northern Morocco.
Last year, there were 14 group attempts to cross into Ceuta and Melilla, compared with six in 2023, the ministry said.
Moroccan authorities rescued 18,645 would-be migrants from unseaworthy boats in 2024, up 10.8 per cent from 2023, it said.
Last month as many as 50 migrants may have drowned in the latest deadly wreck involving people trying to make the Atlantic crossing from West Africa to Spain's Canary Islands, an illegal immigrant activist group said.
(Reporting by Ahmed Eljechtimi; editing by Mark Heinrich)