Rabat – The Moroccan city of Skhirat, a few kilometers away from the capital Rabat, will host a regional meeting on migration in Africa this Monday October 30.
The meeting, which will be held until Wednesday November 1, will be chaired by Morocco’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Nacer Bourita, and is going to be the first step towards the darft of an “African Agenda on Migration.”
The call for such an agenda was made in July by King Mohammed VI. During the African Union (AU) 29th heads of state summit in Addis Ababa, the monarch’s brother, Prince Moulay Rachid, submitted to the current chairman, Guinean President Alpha Condé, a document detailing Morocco’s vision for such an agenda.
In his letter to the summit, King Mohammed VI said that “Africa is losing its youths to legal and illegal migration.”
“There is no way such a loss can be justified », insisted the monarch, calling for “an innovative approach” that would allow Africans to assess “its causes and impacts and to consider possible solutions.”
As it shifted from a transit point to a country where thousands of Sub-Saharan migrants settled down, the kingdom sought dealing with the unprecedented vast influx of migrants by trying to integrate them.
Morocco set a precedent by launching two campaigns in January 2014 and December 2016 to give residency permits for Sub-Saharan migrants and asylum seekers from Syria.
Those campaign, initiated by King Mohammed VI, were praised by international organizations.
In 2014, the former UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres, now the UN Secretary General lauded the monarch for his migration and asylum policy.
“We want to express our admiration for HM the King’s peace initiatives around the world and which are important for the UNHCR,” said Guterres.
