Rabat - More than 4,481 refugees have been registered in Morocco as of September 2015, according to the most recent data announced by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR).“There are currently an estimated 4,481 refugees in the kingdom of Morocco. 60 percent of them are Syrians,” announced Jean-Paul Cavalieri, UNHCR representative in Morocco, during a media briefing last week in Rabat.
Rabat – More than 4,481 refugees have been registered in Morocco as of September 2015, according to the most recent data announced by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
“There are currently an estimated 4,481 refugees in the kingdom of Morocco. 60 percent of them are Syrians,” announced Jean-Paul Cavalieri, UNHCR representative in Morocco, during a media briefing last week in Rabat.
Jean-Paul Cavalieri went on to say that those refugees came to Morocco from 40 countries and are based in 35 cities across Morocco. He added that over 2,983 of them are in need of international protection.
Cavalieri believes that 1,558 asylum applications have been lodged in Morocco as of September 2015, and are now under review by the Moroccan authorities.
A previous report by UNHCR revealed that 1,763 Syrians refugees were registered in Morocco as of August 31, 2015.
The majority of Syrians applying for asylum in Morocco departed Syria legally using their national passports. The two main exit points from Syria are the Aleppo and Damascus airports.
On June 26, 2014, the Moroccan authorities initiated a regularization process for Syrians registered with UNHCR.
The body in charge of the process is an ad hoc, inter-ministerial commission, chaired by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and includes representatives from the ministries of Interior, Justice and Employment, the Inter-Ministerial Delegation for Human Rights and UNHCR. The commission holds its sessions at the Bureau for Refugees and Stateless Persons.
