Migration & Development: Morocco assumes presidency of “Rabat Process”

Morocco took on Wednesday the rotating Presidency of the Euro-African Dialogue on Migration and Development, dubbed “Rabat Process”, for a one-year term.

During a handover ceremony, held in Cadiz on the occasion of the 6th Ministerial Conference of the “Rabat Process”, the Spanish Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, handed over the Presidency to the Minister of Economic Inclusion, Younes Sekkouri, wishing him “every success”.

The Rabat Process must be supported and strengthened, because the reasons for its creation remain valid,” said Grande-Marlaska, adding that “the issue of migration must be addressed on the basis of a comprehensive and balanced vision taking into account all the elements that surround it.”

The only way to deal with the global phenomenon of migration is “two-way cooperation based on shared responsibility, mutual trust and daily operational work,” the Spanish minister noted.

The Rabat Process has become a “pillar of reference” in the field of migration in the world and “we must ensure that in the months and years to come, we can develop innovative actions that take into account the challenges of all partners,” said Sekkouri on his part.

He vowed that during its presidency, Morocco we will work to consolidate the dialogue and deepen the analysis of development dynamics that are related to migration “This is a pillar of the proactive policy that we want to deploy,” he said.

“We are also working on deconstructing negative stereotypes related to migration that are detrimental to the policies that our countries want to implement,” the Minister noted.

Morocco’s approach will also focus on “improving the quality of data we have on migration in the Euro-African area,” he said, calling, in this vein, to work with all Member States for the networking and development of observatories that work on migration.

“We also want to ensure that the diaspora plays an important role for both countries of destination and origin to encourage research and development work in this area,” he said.

The Rabat Process was founded in 2006 as a dialogue platform for national authorities of the countries of origin, transit and destination along the West and Central African migration routes. The initiative was based on the acknowledgement that finding a response to migration flows required a coordinated response from all concerned countries.

At the time, major migration routes crossed the Strait of Gibraltar or led to the Canary Islands. The conviction that it was not exclusively the responsibility of Spain and Morocco to manage these migration routes gave the impetus to France, Morocco, Senegal and Spain to create the Rabat Process. The dialogue was officially established at the first Euro-African Ministerial Conference on Migration and Development organized in Rabat in 2006.

Since then, the Dialogue has offered a framework for consultation, bringing together countries of origin, transit and destination of the migration routes linking Central, West and Northern Africa with Europe. 57 state partners and additional key stakeholders, including the European Union (EU) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), are involved. The result is an open Dialogue between national authorities about technical and political questions related to migration and development.