Morocco is willing to participate positively and effectively in the development of a strategy for the implementation of the Pact, based on its experience and affiliation to different geopolitical spaces said Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccans Abroad, Nasser Bourita in remarks on the occasion of the First Regional Review of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration in the Arab Region, held virtually.

This commitment is based on the successful national experience and in perfect harmony between Morocco's positions and its actions, he said, noting that the Kingdom has not only defended the rights of migrants and their integration, but has ensured the implementation of these rights, since 2013, through a pioneering national strategy on migration and asylum.

As part of this national strategy, two campaigns have helped regularize the situation of more than 50,000 illegal migrants, Bourita added. The Kingdom has also insisted that migrants residing on its soil can benefit from the vaccination campaign against Covid-19, in the same way as nationals, he went on.

Morocco has a rich experience at the African level, Bourita added. He also recalled that His Majesty King Mohammed VI was chosen as the leader of the African Union on migration issues and that in this capacity, the Sovereign has proposed an African agenda to dismantle stereotypes and misconceptions about migration, create links between migration and development and create the conditions for efficient governance of migration at the continental level.

Regarding the implementation of the African Agenda for Migration, Morocco's FM noted that the Kingdom has established the African Migration Observatory as a mechanism for better understanding of the migration phenomenon and better governance among African states.

According to Bourita, the Arab world embodies the various aspects and issues of the migration phenomenon. "At the heart of the Arab world, there are transit countries, source countries and others that are final destinations. It is also home to all categories of migration: voluntary or forced, legal or illegal, in addition to migrants for economic reasons or related to the situation in other regions, including a large number of displaced persons due to the situation in Syria and the presence of Daech in the region," he observed.

"All these factors encourage us to mobilize more for the implementation of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration in the Arab World and for the achievement of its objectives through a coordinated, unified and sustainable approach," Bourita concluded.

Participants at the two-day meeting will review the progress made in the implementation of the Global Compact since its adoption in 2018 as the first government-to-government negotiated pact on international migration in all its dimensions.

The event is held under the auspices of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) and the Arab League, in cooperation with the United Nations Network on Migration in the Arab Region.