On February 28, 2023, Interior Minister Gerhard Karner met his Moroccan counterpart, Abdelouafi Laftit, in Rabat (Morocco). The talks focused on an agreement on increased cooperation in the fight against the international smuggling mafia and faster repatriation of Moroccan citizens who are staying illegally in Austria.

In the fight against the human rights abuses of human smugglers and asylum, Interior Minister Karner wants to push cooperation with countries of origin: "On the one hand, it's about preventing people from countries, such as Morocco, from making their way to Europe. On the other hand, the repatriations and deportations should be more consistent and be done more quickly."

The agreements made during this meeting are to be implemented quickly by setting up a joint working group.

The smuggler mafia lures Moroccan citizens into entering Turkey (no visa required). These people are then mostly smuggled across the Turkish-Bulgarian external border to Bulgaria, further via Serbia and Hungary to the Austrian border. Smuggling from Morocco to Europe costs between 6,000 and 12,000 euros.