In Egypt, Morocco advocates good practices to ensure migrants’ access to essential services.
On Wednesday, Morocco led a plenary session focusing on ensuring migrants’ right of access to basic services, as part of the second regional review of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration – also known as the Marrakech Compact – being held in Cairo on 3 and 4 July.
The session brought together representatives of Arab governments, international organisations, institutions and NGOs concerned with migration issues.
Ismail Chekkouri, Director of Global Issues at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccans Resident Abroad, took the opportunity to highlight the importance of the effective application of objective 15 of the Global Compact, which aims to guarantee the right of migrants to access basic services.
“Despite the challenges and crises facing the Arab region, these countries, including Morocco, have managed to make significant progress. They have put in place programmes and developed good practices enabling migrants to access essential services such as health, education and vocational training,” Mr. Chekkouri emphasised.
At a high-level session on regular migration routes, Chekkouri stressed Morocco’s crucial commitment to achieving the objectives of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, in line with the guidelines set out in the royal message addressed by King Mohammed VI to the Intergovernmental Conference for the adoption of the Compact, held in Marrakech in December 2018.
In this message, the sovereign stated that “the Global Compact is not an end in itself. It only makes sense through its effective implementation.”
He recalled Morocco’s approach, which favours dialogue, cooperation and solidarity with its partners, with the aim of establishing regional and international governance that is beneficial to all parties, on the basis of a convention containing clear commitments.
In this respect, Mr. Chekkouri called for joint efforts to highlight the positive contribution of migrants to the achievement of the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, and to combat the rise of hatred, racism and discrimination against this population.
The second regional review of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration is being organised at the initiative of the Arab League, the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) and the United Nations Migration Network.
MN/fss/as/APA