The rise in the number of criminal gangs involved in human trafficking means that Maghreb countries cannot single-handedly tackle the “extremely complex” issue of migration, Morocco warns.
Africa and Europe must work together to resolve the crisis, Moroccan Minister-Delegate for Foreign Affairs Youssef Amrani said July 11th in Rabat at a meeting on international migration and development.
“Migration is the perfect example of a matter of joint responsibility and therefore requires co-ordinated responses from all parties concerned,” he said.
There are somewhere between 10,000 and 15,000 illegal sub-Saharan immigrants in Morocco, according to interior ministry statistics.
The phenomenon is going through a sea change due to the rise in the number of criminal gangs that arrange for these illegal migrants to travel from their countries of origin to Morocco, Interior Minister Mohand Laenser noted.
Over the past decade, Moroccan authorities have rescued nearly 24,000 illegal migrants from these gangs and arranged voluntary repatriation for 12,000 people.
UN Resident Co-ordinator in Morocco Bruno Pouezat also underlined the need for regional co-operation to deal with the challenges of illegal migration and security.
He called for an “inclusive inter-governmental and non-governmental partnership, which will make it possible to tackle the challenges brought by this unprecedented period of human mobility that the world is now witnessing.
This “has resulted in several countries around the world becoming countries of origin, transit countries and destinations for migratory flows all at the same time.”
Thus far, regional partnership in relation to migration issues has fallen short of expectations, according to political analyst Ismail Hamri.
“It is important to adopt an approach based not solely on security, but also on legal and humanitarian aspects,” he said. “This strategy must be developed by Maghreb nations in partnership with the countries on the northern shores of the Mediterranean.”
“Migration brings with it the pressing issue of security,” Hamri added. “Human trafficking gangs have close links with terrorist networks and all cross-border criminal trafficking.”
“Political differences must be put to one side in order to deal with this issue, which needs to be prioritised by all countries of the Maghreb,” he concluded.
By Siham Ali, Source: Magharebia
