Chapter 5 Urban partnerships to manage mobility
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Need for improved national and local governance on migration management in Morocco7 With the evolution of Morocco from a country of emigration to a country that is increasingly hosting sub-Saharan Africans, different human rights groups, including the National Human Rights Council and various migrant associations, have called for a re-evaluation and reform of Moroccan migration policy. In September 2013, King Mohammed VI announced that the Government would begin working on a new, more liberal immigration policy that is attentive to the basic rights of migrants and the provision of basic services to them. One of the key features of the policy, adopted in September 2013, includes the special regularization of certain categories of undocumented migrants. Eligible candidates for special regularization include those with work contracts effective for at least two years, non-nationals who have lived in Morocco for five years or more, non-national spouses of Moroccans who have lived together for at least two years, non-national spouses of regularized non-nationals who have lived together at least four years, children of couples in one of these types of relationships, and those with severe medical conditions who arrived before the end of 2013. As of October 2014, the number of regularization requests had reached nearly 20,000, representing 103 countries. Nearly half of these requests have been approved (IOM, 2014). Intertwined with this policy shift is the signing of a mobility partnership with the EU, which contains a readmission agreement that places increased pressure and responsibility on Moroccan central and local authorities to effectively and humanely manage returned non-nationals once they are readmitted into Morocco. A combination of Moroccan foreign policy and cooperation, European security policies and economic situation, and the push and pull factors at work in sub-Saharan Africa is therefore currently transforming Morocco’s migrant landscape. Until policy decisions among sending, transit and receiving countries can curb this migratory trend through local development in the migrants’ countries of origin, rather than focus on containing it in destination countries, Maghrebi central and local authorities will require more and more resources to govern, integrate and serve this growing population (EMHRN, 2014).
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M. Serageldin, F. Vigier and M. Larsen, Urban Migration Trends in the MENA Region and the Challenge of Conflict Induced Displacement, 2014. Background Paper for the World Migration Report 2015: Migrants and Cities: New Partnerships to Manage Mobility, IOM, Geneva.