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Violation of migrants’ human rights in Morocco an “accident”

action-2 | 29.01.2007 19:29 | Globalisation | Migration | Repression | World

Violation of migrants’ human rights in Morocco an “accident” says Commission official. The European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights held an exchange of views on the situation of migrants in Morocco on Monday, 22nd January.

According to a French researcher, Jérôme Valluy, who presented his report to the Committee, Moroccan authorities deported over 400 people - amongst them 60 asylum seekers and ten refugees with UNHCR papers – to the Algerian border between Christmas and New Years Day. Human rights violations including rapes are reported to have been committed during the police operation aimed at fighting human trafficking.

Leonello Gabrici, head of the Commission’s Maghreb unit in the External Relations Directorate- General, stressed that the question of human rights should be considered in relation to the big picture of cooperation with Morocco on migration and the European Neighbourhood Policy, which had made positive progress in recent years. Discussions on relations with Morocco should not be dominated by “accidents” like the incident at the end of last year. The Commission official rejected the idea that EU policy induced Morocco and other countries to violate human rights in the fight against irregular migration. Furthermore, the EU’s competency in external relations was still too limited to enforce effectively the respect of the international human rights in third countries.

The Moroccan ambassador to the EU, H.E. Menouar Alem, stressed that his country had registered an increase in asylum claims only because it was a transit country for people en route to Europe, a sort of “anti-chamber” to Europe. People used asylum applications as an opportunity to stay longer in Morocco in order to prepare their journey to Europe. Morocco had limited resources to protect refugees, however, and Europe had to assist his country. Mr Alem underlined that Morocco was prepared to do its part in the fight against irregular migration, but it could not be Europe’s policeman and Europe had to do its share, too.

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More raids in Morocco

01.02.2007 15:02

The raids and deportations of subsaharan Africans in Morocco are still going on. Since 30.1.07 about 130 migrants were arrested in Casablanca and taken by busses to Oujda and from there to the Algerian border. Among them were again at least a dozen people with papers from the UNHCR which were teared, also women and children. And some of the migrants had just returned from Oujda before.

Activists in Morocco are calling for a meeting on the 10th of february, and they need transnational support to fight against this EU migration policy, at least by making public in Europe what is going on at the borders!

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More information on following webpages

07.02.2007 18:23

Rafles de subsahariens au Maroc à Noël 2006 -- Rapport à l'association Migreurop par Jérôme Valluy le 6 janvier 2007 (Word Document):  http://terra.rezo.net/IMG/doc/VALLUY060107.doc
Réseau scientifique TERRA  http://terra.rezo.net (fr)

Refugee Council Hamburg -  http://fluechtlingsrat-hamburg.de
Collected information:  http://fluechtlingsrat-hamburg.de/content/ab_231206_Abschiebung_Marokko.html (en/de/...)

Collection of many articles (also from earlier time) in  http://no-racism.net
Section "Escape Route Mediterranean":  http://no-racism.net/thema/38 (de/en)

Migreurop: Rafles et expulsions au Maroc 2006-2007:  http://www.migreurop.org/rubrique210.html (fr)

Articles in english in  http://noborder.org
Chronology Dez 24 - Jan 01:  http://noborder.org/item.php?id=377

Indymedia Estrecho:  http://estrecho.indymedia.org (es)

Meltingpot Europe - Marocco e immigrazione:  http://www.meltingpot.org/archivio1008.html (it)

Attac Morocco:  http://maroc.attac.org (arabic/fr)

Indymedia Feature: Left in the Desert: Hundreds of Refugees Arrested and Deported from Morocco (01 Jan 2007) -  http://www.indymedia.org/en/2007/01/877704.shtml (en/de/pt/es/el)

no-racism.net
- Homepage: http://no-racism.net/thema/38


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