Morocco Would Provide Asylum to 500 Syrians

While dozens of Syrian migrant trying to cross the border of Melilla, Moroccan authorities could grant asylum to some 500 Syrian refugees, said AFP.

The minister of communication, Mustapha El Khalfi who made the announcement in a press conference. The government spokesman said without specifying the number that “the Ministry of Migration Affairs held a meeting to evaluate the possibility of accepting the records of a number of Syrian asylum seekers. These cases are being processed by the National Monitoring Committee and Appeals chaired by the national committee of Human Rights (CNDH). ” But a ministerial source told AFP that the CNDH commission investigated last Wednesday “459 asylum requests, including 126 concern children.”

This would be a first as far no Syrian migrant had obtained asylum in Morocco. As against 5250 of them had been regularized in the exceptional regularization operation in 2014. According to the minister in charge of Moroccans living abroad and Migration Affairs, Anis Birou always quoted by the same source, it was concerned primarily women and children.