Several speakers at the 36th session of the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families (CMW) commended Morocco’s migration and asylum policies.
On the occasion of the review of the second periodic report on the implementation of the International Convention on the subject, the rapporteurs of the Committee praised the content and directions of the Moroccan National Policy on Migration and Asylum of 2013, in its human rights aspects, as presented, Tuesday in Geneva, by the Minister of Economic Inclusion, Small Business, Employment, and Skills, Younes Sekkouri.
“Morocco is at present a country of transit and residence, on top of being a country of origin,” noted Sekkouri, adding that Morocco relies on an integrated legislative system and a coherent operational arsenal in the approach to migration issues, in several fields, ranging from women and children to employment law, as well as access to justice and interventions of public authorities.
According to the Minister, the multidimensional approach, with its preventive, humanitarian, legal, and regulatory aspects, establishes Morocco as a leading country at both continental and international levels, adding that this approach is associated with a system of values based on which the Kingdom deals with complex problems revealing the inadequacy of security approaches.
For his part, Morocco’s permanent representative to the United Nations Office in Geneva (UNOG), Ambassador Omar Zniber, highlighted Morocco’s extensive diplomatic action in international forums to promote the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families, as well as the continuous actions undertaken by the Kingdom to create a platform for cooperation and partnership at regional and international levels.
The Committee’s rapporteurs and the members of the Moroccan delegation discussed several issues including the conditions of women and children in the context of migration, access to basic services such as health, education, and housing, legal mechanisms regulating the entry and residence of workers, as well as efforts to promote migrants rights and the fight against human trafficking.
This interaction, which was held over the course of two sessions, allowed Morocco to review the foundations and content of its pioneering experience in migration management, particularly in terms of the rehabilitation of the migration and asylum legal framework and the fight against human trafficking, as part of proactive and humane national policies.