Rabat – Morocco hosted today in Rabat the official launch of the new cooperative migratory project “Towards a Holistic Approach to Labor Migration Governance and Labour Mobility in North Africa” (THAMM).
The project’s funding comes from the EU and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), the German ministry funded the project through its own mechanism, and the EU funded the project through its “Emergency Trust Fund for Stability and Addressing the Root Causes of Irregular Migration and Displaced Persons in Africa.”
The choice to host the initiative’s launch in Morocco reflects the country’s efforts and approach in handling migration issues.
ILO said the projects are undergoing implementation under two contracts.
The first contract concerns the ILO and International Organization for Migration (IOM), while the second one is with the German development agency, known as GIZ.
Commenting on the launch of the project, Minister of Labor Mohammed Amkraz recalled Morocco’s humanitarian migration policy that King Mohammed VI implemented in 2013.
Amakraz reviewed the measures Morocco deployed to carry out its migration and asylum strategy through opening the labor market to legal migrants.
Morocco’s migration governance also enables the children of migrants to access education.
However, migration is a dynamic, multilateral issue that requires dynamic, multilateral solutions.
“The emergence of new immigrant profiles constitutes a major challenge for the management and good governance of this phenomenon,” the minister said.
Amkraz called for a global approach based on a common international and regional vision.
The minister emphasized the importance of both North-South and South-South cooperation for the proper management of migration.
Philip Mikos, the Head of Cooperation at the European Commission and Minister Counselor to the EU Delegation to Morocco, said the cooperative initiative seeks to guarantee legal migrants respect for their rights, as well as training opportunities, especially in Morocco.
The EU official said the goal of the program is to reinforce the governance of labor migration in Morocco, Tunisia, and Egypt and to expand work opportunities in Europe for professionals from the three countries.
“THAMM is the first EU program which is based, jointly, on cooperation between a partner country and different member states to improve mobility from partner countries to Europe,” he added.
The member states concerned include Germany and Belgium, who will work with the other partner countries to improve mobility to Europe.
“Developing migration opportunities in safe and regular conditions is a priority for the European Union and for Morocco,” the EU official emphasized.
Morocco’s government has launched a set of regularization operations over the years in favor of sub-Saharan migrants.
To date, Morocco has regularized the status of over 50,000 migrants.
The migration governance strategy gives migrants legal rights across Morocco, including access to housing, medical care, education, and employment.
Morocco’s government has also strengthened its approach against human trafficking, vowing efforts to rescue migrants from undocumented migration organizers.
In 2019, Morocco aborted 74,000 irregular migration attempts.
