4.10.2012. This week, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) launched an appeal
to raise 620,000 euros to "help desperate African migrants, including unaccompanied children,
return home from Morocco". The money would be used to fly migrants back home
and to help returnees to start up businesses in their own country.
At
first sight, this may sound laudable, but what seems to be happening here is
that IOM tries to make money out of the violation of migrants' rights by the
Moroccan government.
Since 2000, Morocco has witnessed increased
immigration from sub-Saharan African countries such as Senegal, Mali, Cameroon,
Côte d'Ivoire, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo. While many migrants
originally moved to Morocco in the hope to cross to Europe, a considerable
proportion of those failing or not venturing to enter Europe prefer to stay as a second-best option instead of returning to
their more unstable, unsafe, and substantially poorer origin countries.
