Morocco Regularizes Over 23,000 Migrants in Latest Integration Effort

At a press conference in Rabat, Ahmed Lahlimi explained, in a public document, that a "second phase of integration of people in an irregular situation" had been launched on December 15, 2016 for a period of one year.

As of December 31, 2017, 28,400 regularization applications, representing 113 nationalities, have been filed by migrants in an irregular situation in 83 provinces and prefectures of the Kingdom.

The High Commission for Planning (HCP) conducted a survey on international migration in order to apprehend all its contours in Morocco. In its cooperation with Africa, "Morocco can also inspire several countries".

Morocco has long been considered an emigration country before gradually becoming a destination for thousands of sub-Saharan and Arab migrants, who have come voluntarily, either constrained by the difficult economic or political conditions in their countries, or in search of a better future.

The kingdom has also undertaken a vast program of reforms of its National Strategy for Immigration and Asylum (SNIA). A strategy aimed at ensuring better integration of migrants (irregular, regularized, refugees, asylum seekers and any foreign person in a vulnerable situation in Morocco) and better management of migration flows within the framework of a coherent, comprehensive, humanistic and responsible policy.