SUB-SAHARAN IRREGULAR MIGRANTS IN MOROCCO & THE EXCEPTIONAL REGULARISATION PROGRAMME IN 2014
Naama, Mbarek (2017)
Naama, Mbarek
Diakonia-ammattikorkeakoulu
2017
All rights reserved
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-201705025903
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-201705025903
Tiivistelmä
Naama, Mbarek. Sub-Saharan Irregular Migrants in Morocco and the Exceptional Regularisation Programme in 2014. Diak South Helsinki Finland. Spring 2017. 43 Pages. Language: English. Diaconia University of Applied Sciences, Degree Programme in Social Services, Option in Community Development, Bachelor of Social Services (UAS).
After decades of ignoring irregular migration and refusing to acknowledge that Morocco is no longer just a transit but also a host country for increasing complex migration flows of refugees, asylum seekers and economic migrants mainly from sub-Saharan Africans countries, the Moroccan authorities in September 2013 radically changed their attitudes towards this new migration patterns by adopting a new migration and asylum policy. A policy that will mark a major departure from the restrictive migration policy enforced in Morocco since the adoption of the Immigration Law 02-03, criminalizing irregular migration and establishing heavy fines and prison penalties for irregular immigrants, to a more humanitarian and human rights based policy of immigration.
This new policy included a process of an extraordinary regularization programme granting legal status to specific categories of migrants who meet certain criteria, and three new laws on Immigration, Trafficking of Human Beings and Asylum.
This descriptive report intends to examine the circumstances in which the 2014 exceptional regularization programme was implemented in Morocco, in doing so it will address the numbers regularised relative to the numbers of applicants, the migrant eligibility criteria, the benefits offered to migrants, and the actors involved in policy formulation. Further to this, it will present an overall estimate of the size of sub-Saharan irregular migrants in Morocco, their composition, main routes to the country and their living condition in the Kingdom. It will also address the legal context in which the authorities were dealing with this phenomenon.
Assessing the success of any regularization campaign is usually very difficult and requires empirical research on its mid- and long-term outcomes. In the case of Morocco’ exceptional regularization programme of 2014, even though several domestic and international rights groups had welcomed this new migration approach, it is too early to draw conclusions on its impact on the life conditions of the regularized migrants including their integration into the Moroccan society. Undoubtedly, this new approach is courageous by a developing country in the Global South, yet there are many fundamental challenges that lie ahead for Morocco.
After decades of ignoring irregular migration and refusing to acknowledge that Morocco is no longer just a transit but also a host country for increasing complex migration flows of refugees, asylum seekers and economic migrants mainly from sub-Saharan Africans countries, the Moroccan authorities in September 2013 radically changed their attitudes towards this new migration patterns by adopting a new migration and asylum policy. A policy that will mark a major departure from the restrictive migration policy enforced in Morocco since the adoption of the Immigration Law 02-03, criminalizing irregular migration and establishing heavy fines and prison penalties for irregular immigrants, to a more humanitarian and human rights based policy of immigration.
This new policy included a process of an extraordinary regularization programme granting legal status to specific categories of migrants who meet certain criteria, and three new laws on Immigration, Trafficking of Human Beings and Asylum.
This descriptive report intends to examine the circumstances in which the 2014 exceptional regularization programme was implemented in Morocco, in doing so it will address the numbers regularised relative to the numbers of applicants, the migrant eligibility criteria, the benefits offered to migrants, and the actors involved in policy formulation. Further to this, it will present an overall estimate of the size of sub-Saharan irregular migrants in Morocco, their composition, main routes to the country and their living condition in the Kingdom. It will also address the legal context in which the authorities were dealing with this phenomenon.
Assessing the success of any regularization campaign is usually very difficult and requires empirical research on its mid- and long-term outcomes. In the case of Morocco’ exceptional regularization programme of 2014, even though several domestic and international rights groups had welcomed this new migration approach, it is too early to draw conclusions on its impact on the life conditions of the regularized migrants including their integration into the Moroccan society. Undoubtedly, this new approach is courageous by a developing country in the Global South, yet there are many fundamental challenges that lie ahead for Morocco.