African Migration Observatory in Morocco Arose From HM the King’s Vision for Migration in Africa

The African Migration Observatory in Morocco arose from the vision that His Majesty King Mohammed VI has for migration in Africa, says the Report of HM King Mohammed VI, Leader on the issue of Migration, on the follow-up to the operationalization of the African Migration Observatory in Morocco, presented Sunday before the 35th Ordinary Session of the African Union Assembly, held in Addis Ababa. It is one of the two flagship proposals contained in the African Agenda on Migration that the Sovereign presented to the 30th Summit of Heads of State and Government of the African Union, in January 2018, stresses the report, presented by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccans Abroad, Nasser Bourita, who represents the Sovereign at this 35th Ordinary Session of the AU Assembly. “My proposal has passed through the institutions of the African Union: At the 31st African Union Summit of Heads of State and Government, held in Nouakchott, on 1st and 2nd July 2018, the African Migration Observatory was set up as a new Organ of the African Union by Decision 695 of the Assembly (Assembly/AU/Dec.695 (XXXI)). The Assembly endorsed Decision 771 of the Peace and Security Council, in which it was agreed to establish the Observatory, following to my proposal. Similarly, Decision 782 of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union, dated 27 June 2019, requested the African Union Commission +to accelerate the establishment of the Migration Observatory in Morocco+”, the Sovereign emphasized in the report. For its part, the Kingdom of Morocco has spared no effort to create the right conditions for the operationalization of the Observatory. Thus, on the sidelines of the Intergovernmental Conference for the adoption of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, the Government of the Kingdom of Morocco and the African Union signed, on December 10, 2018, in Marrakech, the Headquarters Agreement for the setting up of the African Migration Observatory, the report adds. The Headquarters Agreement established the legal framework whereby the Observatory is established and carries out its functions and activities in the Kingdom of Morocco. Morocco has fulfilled all the commitments contained in that agreement, in particular by providing the necessary means for the actual start of the activities of the African Migration Observatory, according to the report. The Statutes of the Observatory were adopted at the 33rd African Union Summit of Heads of State and Government held from 9 to 11 February 2020. Based on the above legal framework and in compliance with those institutional decisions, the process culminated in the official inauguration of the African Migration Observatory in Rabat, on 18 December 2020, symbolically coinciding with International Migrants Day. “This inauguration is one of the many concrete manifestations of my mandate as Leader of the African Union on the issue of migration. It has a threefold significance: for Morocco, for Africa, and for cooperation between Morocco and the other African countries”, the Sovereign said in the report. Only a few years after its return to the African Union, Morocco is pleased to host an African Union institution which, what is more, deals with an extremely important issue for our African continent. As indicated at the 28th Summit of the African Union, “As soon as the Kingdom becomes a member and is able to contribute to the agenda of activities, its action will (…) help bring about unity and progress. This is precisely what we are doing through the Observatory”, HM the King noted in this report.