Moroccan FM: Western Mediterranean Needs 'Holistic’ Approach to Migration

Rabat – “The western Mediterranean region needs a governance that is based on a holistic political understanding to implement our national policies through better coordination, more consensual decisions and better-concerted actions,” Morocco’s Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita said on Monday in Marrakech.

At the inauguration of the 8th Ministerial Conference of the 5 + 5 Dialogue on Migration and Development, the FM stressed that” the migration issue in the 5 + 5 region is an ecosystem where we, the states of the region, need landmarks, course, and governance.”

Morocco, the FM said, aims to develop a bi-continental consensus on the right approach to controlling migration.

“Our ambition for this conference is to serve as a platform for a positive agenda of measures, inspired by a few consensual principles of the Marrakech Pact,” the FM announced.

He underlined Morocco’s humanist approach to migration. The policy, adhered to in all of Morocco’s efforts to clamp down on irregular migration, led to the dismantling of more than 208 networks, to rescue at sea some 20,000 migrants by the Royal Moroccan Navy and foil nearly 75,000 irregular emigration attempts.

The minister took the opportunity to spotlight the collaboration between Morocco and Spain, saying “all-round coordination has made it possible to reduce by 60% the irregular immigration attempts, saving thousands of lives at sea.”

Morocco’s renowned approach to migration has led to African countries entrusting King Mohammed VI with continental leadership on the phenomenon.

The monarch’s leadership, within the framework of the African Agenda for Migration, contributes to a human view of migrants at a time when “stereotypes about African migrants are wide-spread.”

The 2020 5+5 Dialogue took place on March 1-2, focusing on “Migration and Development.”

5+5 is a sub-regional forum for dialogue between ten countries. The Maghreb member countries are Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia, while the European nations are France, Italy, Malta, Portugal, and Spain.

The ministerial forum took place for the first time in 1990 in Rome. It was then only an unofficial regional forum for countries committed to cooperation in the Western Mediterranean.

At the 2020 conference, FMs from the ten member states adopted a declaration aimed to pave the way for a Western Mediterranean action plan on migration and development, based on the principles of humane and orderly management of the migration issue and shared responsibility.