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Join on Telegram Rabat – Moroccan Foreign Affairs Minister Nasser Bourita said that it is necessary to “dispel” misunderstandings on migratory phenomena to boost the Africa-Europe partnership in the field.
Bourita made his remarks during a videoconference at a meeting on “migration and mobility in the Africa-Europe partnership.”
The Africa-Europe Foundation organized the meeting on January 27 ahead of the 6th EU-Africa Summit scheduled for February 17-18 in Brussels.
In the meeting, Bourita emphasized that if migration is a common issue, “the interests linked to it often remain contradictory.”
In order for interests to be able to converge, “it is necessary to dispel the misunderstandings which surround the migratory phenomenon,” Bourita argued.
He said that the first misunderstanding regarding migration is “knowledge.”
“Migration policies must resist the examination of the truth instead of giving in to the temptation of controversy. They must, with supporting figures, concede that the crisis is not migratory but political,” he argued.
For Bourita, the second misunderstanding concerns the objective of migration policies.”
“We must stop making people believe that migration policies will one day be able to control migratory flows,” he said.
The Moroccan foreign affairs stressed that no power can end a natural phenomenon that has existed for decades and will continue in the future.
“Nothing, not even a pandemic, will stop a natural phenomenon that has always existed and will continue to do so,” the Moroccan FM said.
The third misunderstanding, according to the Moroccan FM, is that policymakers need to stop entrusting “the keys to migration management to smugglers by closing legal access routes to Europe.”
He said that the atrocity concerns human trafficking not migration, describing trafficking of migrants as the “third source of profits for criminal organizations.”
Summarizing his points, the Moroccan official called on the international community to recognize that migration “does not need palliative and immediate strategies, but creative and ingenious measures that combine the short, medium, and long term.”
For Bourita, migration is not just about border management but also the encouragement and organization of legal mobility for people, emphasizing on shared responsibility to tackle the crisis.
The Moroccan government is engaged in international efforts in migration management.
The North African country also takes part in regional and international debates to share expertise and contribute to all efforts seeking to tackle migration challenges.
