CCPR Concluding observations: Morocco, 2016
Published: 1/Dec/2016
Source: UN Human Rights Committee
CCPR/C/MAR/CO/6
Concluding observations on the sixth periodic report of Morocco
Asylum seekers and refugees
35. The Committee welcomes the State party’s efforts to develop a legal framework on migration, asylum and human trafficking. It finds it regrettable that the regularization process pursued in 2014 did not result in the regularization of many refugees, particularly in the case of refugees from the Syrian Arab Republic. The Committee takes note with concern of the continued occurrence of arbitrary arrests of migrants and of allegations concerning the excessive use of force against migrants and the participation of Moroccan security forces in collective expulsions, particularly in the vicinity of the autonomous Spanish cities of Ceuta and Melilla. It also takes note of concerns regarding the detention and treatment of child migrants and regarding the legal barriers to the registration of newborns, the recognition of marriages of asylum seekers and refugees and the transmission of nationality, which may cause children born on Moroccan territory to be stateless (arts. 6, 7, 12, 23 and 24).
36. The State party should:
(a) expedite its revision of the legal framework on migration and asylum in order to align it with the Covenant and the adoption of Bill No. 26-14;
(b) redouble its efforts to regularize the situation of persons in need of international protection, in particular Syrian refugees, by granting legal status and national refugee cards to them so as to uphold their right to non-discrimination, including non-discrimination in terms of access to the formal labour market;
(c) introduce procedures for the determination of refugee status at points of entry into the country, including in airports;
(d) put an end to collective arrests and refrain from participating in mass expulsions of migrants, including expulsions conducted in the vicinity of the autonomous Spanish cities of Ceuta and Melilla;
(e) put a stop to the excessive use of force by law enforcement officers by, inter alia, providing more training in that connection and introducing oversight mechanisms and means of ensuring greater accountability; and
(f) remove legal barriers to the registration of newborns and the recognition of marriages among refugees and asylum seekers, revise the Nationality Code of 2007 so that nationality may be transmitted to all children born in Morocco, consider ratifying the 1954 and 1961 conventions on statelessness and establish a legal framework that will prevent statelessness.
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