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Rabat – Widely considered to be among the main stakeholders of the UN Global Compact for Migration, Morocco has renewed its commitment to ensuring the success of the UN Compact.
At the initiative of the UN Economic Commission for Africa, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and the UN Migration Network, African countries recently launched the first intergovernmental conference for the African Regional Review on the implementation of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration.
During the inaugural session of the conference, Morocco’s ambassador in Kenya, Abderrazzak Laassel, said migration management is among Morocco’s priorities.
In his speech, the Moroccan diplomat also emphasized the importance of improving the conditions of migrants and the effective implementation of the UN framework on migration.
Dozens of countries voted for the Global Compat when it was adopted in Marrakech, Morocco, in December 2018.
The objectives of the program cover 23 axes, including facilitating access to family reunification procedures for migrants and reducing delays in the processing of asylum requests or the issuing of other administrative documents.
“The African commitment to the migration issue is well established,” Laassel said.
He added that the continents also adopted a South-South cooperation approach which, based on solidarity and complementarity, is beneficial to all states – and especially migrants.
Cisse Mariama Mohammed, the head of the social affairs division of the African Union Commission, also renewed the continent commitment to upholding the provisions of the Global Compact. Despite the challenges that came with the unprecedented COVID crisis, Africa has remained committed to the UN document, said the AU official.
IOM’s Representative in Ethiopia and to the AU, Maureen Achieng, also spoke of the importance of coordination and exchange between African states for a “concrete application of continental aspirations in this area and the emergence of good governance of the migration issue.”
She suggested that free movement of people, capital, goods and services is both a major aspiration of the AU’s Agenda 2063 and a main challenge for the effective implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
The agenda stipulates, among other provisions and recommendations, that free movement in the continent could contribute to trade and investment growth between African countries to “unprecedented levels.” For many in Africa’s policy circles, an effective implementation of the AfCFTA could play a crucial role in consolidating and upgrading Africa’s position in world trade.
The head of the IOM’s secretariat, Jonathan Prentice, said that the implementation of the Global Compact on Migration constitutes a great achievement for African States and an opportunity for development on a continental and global scale
Prentice also called on governments worldwide to place migrants, particularly the most vulnerable ones, at the heart of continental concerns and international programs about migration.
