New report examines Moroccan migrant rights record

27/03/2009

The Moroccan government has mistreated illegal immigrants, said a group defending the rights of migrants. "Morocco is a civilised country," replied the government spokesman.

By Naoufel Cherkaoui for Magharebia in Rabat – 27/03/09

[File] Government spokesman Khalid Naciri says Morocco does not mistreat illegal migrants.

A Moroccan advocacy group brought the Moroccan government under scrutiny recently for its treatment of illegal immigrants, accusing the state of violating their human rights. The report, issued March 20th, compares Morocco's record to a UN convention on migrant rights.

Government spokesman Khaled Naciri denied the accusations in remarks given Wednesday (March 25th). "A single incident was reported a few months ago about Moroccan soldiers attempting to drown a boat of... migrants," he said, "which soon turned out to be baseless because Morocco's enemy could not come up with a shred of evidence to prove it."

"Morocco is a civilised country and does not kill migrants as some allege," he concluded.

The report was prepared by the Anti-racist Group Assisting and Defending Foreigners and Migrants (GADEM) to bring suspected human rights violations by Morocco to light. In the document, GADEM studies the local and international legal aspects of migration, and includes testimonies from migrants who claim their personal safety was violated by Moroccan authorities.

According to GADEM chief Hicham Rachidi, the report "relied on the minutes of the royal gendarmerie and the police, judicial sentences in a number of Moroccan courts, as well as testimonies accusing Moroccan authorities of being involved in instances of killing with firearms, boat drowning and deportation to the desert, in addition to cases of battery and dispossession in police stations."

One such account concerns an event in July 2007 in which a boat belonging to the Moroccan navy approached a disabled boat to rescue 37 migrants on board. According to the testimony, the navy threw ropes over to the other vessel but cut them without warning. The boat subsequently crashed, and 17 people drowned.

Rachidi did praise the government for ending practices such as mass arrests, violence during raids and deportation of women. "Nevertheless, we believe this is inadequate and that Morocco has to exert more effort to ensure migrants' rights, through harmonising Moroccan regulations with international law."

Mourad El Kalkha, an attorney specialising in migration, noted, "The most important remark in the report is that Morocco violates the law [governing] the process of deportation to the borders, since it is unfair to illegal migrants."

He told Magharebia that Morocco must reform laws that conflict with international agreements ratified by the kingdom, but acknowledged the complexity of such changes.

"Moroccan immigration law stipulates passing regulations for shelters, which have not seen light so far," El Kalkha said. "On the one hand, establishing such shelters is against international conventions, but on the other, their absence aggravates migrants' suffering."