Washington- Morocco’s new immigration policy, enacted after a scandal alleging Morocco’s mistreatment of Sub-Saharan migrants in the country, is on its way to being all-inclusive and comprehensive—covering everything from legal residency status to legitimate employment for non-nationals.
The new policy, put forth via recommendations by the National Human Rights Council [NHRC], implicates not only Sub-Saharan migrants living and working in Morocco, but Europeans as well—specifically, those who move to Morocco seeking greater economic opportunity, open businesses, and make a profit on Moroccan soil without registering as a legal Moroccan resident.
To do so, many European immigrants have employed a strategic method that allows them to continue their business in Morocco unnoticed by authorities: they use their tourist visa (which allows for a thee-month stay in Morocco), leave the country for a short period in order to automatically renew their tourist visa, and then return to Morocco. This enables them to surpass Morocco’s complicated procedures for obtaining residence permits and work permits.
However, now that King Mohammed VI has moved to regularize the residency status of all immigrants in Morocco, the NHRC is calling for further reforms that include rights for migrant workers. As the unprecedented economic crisis that hit Europe pushes more and more Europeans, especially Spaniards, to look for job opportunities in Morocco. The number of Spaniards officially registered as residents in Morocco quadrupled between 2003 (3000) and 2011 (more than 10,000) according to the National Statistics Institute of Spain
But a report but Moroccan channel 2M said that over 150,000 Spaniards have crossed the Strait of Gibraltar in search of job opportunities in Morocco.With reforms targeted toward regularizing migrant workers, there would be no need for European migrants working in Morocco to continue their sordid process of ‘living as a tourist’.
© Morocco World News. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten or redistributed