The phenomenon of illegal immigration and attempts by some extremist organizations to exploit illegal convoys of illegal migrants to move between the two shores of the Mediterranean dominated the ninth meeting of the heads of the naval staff of the “5 + 5 Defense” Initiative. The meeting included Spain, France, Italy, Portugal, Malta and the five Arab Maghreb Union countries.

The meeting provided valuable opportunity for exchanging views and experiences as well as discussing issues of common concern to achieve the major objectives of the initiative which has become a reference in the field of regional cooperation.

The aim of the meeting is to exchange views and experiences on issues of common concern to strengthen and enhance cooperation among the EITI countries in the areas of maritime safety, control and security in the Western Mediterranean Basin. It is also considered an effective mechanism for promoting cooperation between the countries of the two shores of the Mediterranean on the basis of mutual trust.

The issue of illegal immigration has become a major concern for both African and European countries because of the attempted incursion of foreign fighters into convoys of illegal immigrants.

These countries rersume their security efforts to impose strict security measures on their coasts to limit the flow of illegal immigrants, especially as some of the information held by these countries confirms that some extremist organizations seek to benefit from this phenomenon and carry out extreme cross-border operations.

Italy's Justice Minister Andrea Orlando revealed that Italy was investigating the possible involvement of ISIS in carrying out an attack against his country, as tens of thousands of migrants poured into Europe across the Mediterranean. He added that extremist organizations have exploited criminal gangs and chaos in Libya by displacing citizens who aspire to a better life in Europe.

"The risks we have to face are significant," he said, adding that there were suspicions that militants were seeking to play a role in terms of where immigrants were housed in Italy.

An international non-governmental organization in Spain, interested in the phenomenon of illegal immigration, pointed to the decline in the number of illegal Algerian migrants to the southern shores of European countries to more than half in 2016, thanks to the strict security control imposed by the security services in Algeria on its coastline.