Morocco Hosts 12,000 Refugees from 40 Countries, UNHCR Reports

As part of the national immigration and asylum strategy, the UNHCR which works in synergy with the Moroccan authorities, facilitates asylum procedures while ensuring the protection of refugees. Even in these times of health crisis due to Covid-19 and the gradual lifting of restrictive measures, services have been maintained for refugees.

In several cities, notably Tangier and Casablanca, the UNHCR has set up protection working groups (GTP) composed of civil society actors, institutional partners and regional human rights commissions. The role of these groups is to better identify and protect refugees and asylum seekers.

The UNHCR, whose mission is to improve the protection environment for refugees and asylum seekers, is also involved alongside the UN and is involved in the UNDAF (United Nations Development Assistance Framework) process as well as in thematic groups on migration, gender, HIV/AIDS, trafficking, education, youth, communication (UNCG) and monitoring and evaluation, notes the same source.

It should be noted that among the refugees and asylum seekers present in Morocco, Syrians are at the top of the list with 4,160 people. They are followed by Guinea with 1,248, Yemen with 914, Cameroon with 991, Côte d’Ivoire with 935 and the Central African Republic with 738. For South Sudan, there are 388 people, the Democratic Republic of Congo (326), Palestine (206) and Iraq (134), All other nationalities present account for 1,970 people.