On 21 February, Spain and Morocco reached an agreement on a new protocol to contain the irregular migration flow. The Spanish public entity that deals with maritime rescue, “Salvamento Marítimo” will be able to take a fraction of rescued migrants back to Moroccan ports, according to three sources in the Spanish government. Until now, shipwrecks localized on the Strait of Gibraltar or in the Alboran Sea are directly transferred to a Spanish port, even though the place of rescue was closer to the Moroccan coast. The measure will be enforced in the “common responsibility zone” both maritime rescue teams share, meaning that intercepted migrants will be sent back to Morocco as long as it is the nearest port available. This strategy is part of Spain’s government attempt to reduce by half the number of irregular migration entries after a record year of influx (64.298 in 2018 according to the Ministry of Home Affairs, compared to 2017 numbers that were of 27.340).