E/CN.4/2004/76/Add.3
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his or her new cultural and social environment. Some civil society associations have committed
themselves to combating irregular emigration by setting up microcredit and small enterprise
schemes. They are also involved in awareness-raising campaigns on the dangers of irregular
migration.
23.
The Special Rapporteur believes that more should be done to strengthen protection and
promotion strategies that put the accent on training programmes in the private and public sectors
and deliver a system of training that is tailored to the needs of enterprises. The drive to
streamline regular emigration and to combat irregular migration is evidenced by the creation,
in 2001, of the Agence Nationale de promotion de l’emploi et des compétences, which acts as
a Moroccan public intermediary on the international market.
24.
The Special Rapporteur regards these initiatives as examples of good practice that ought
to be emulated in other regions of Morocco. Awareness-raising, investment in the economic and
social sectors and development of infrastructure and services support an approach to migration
that links it to the eradication of poverty, to local development initiatives in regions with a high
potential for migration and to a process that favours informed and dignified regular migration.
C. Morocco as a point of departure for irregular migration
25.
The Special Rapporteur informed the Moroccan authorities of her concerns about
the human rights violations to which Moroccan irregular migrants are subjected. The
Special Rapporteur met numerous Moroccan irregular migrants being held in detention in
Spain. She was also told about those who lose their lives while trying to pass illegally through
the Strait of Gibraltar in small boats (pateras) in order to get to Europe. On the basis of
information obtained by the association of the families of victims of illegal emigration, the
Special Rapporteur was told that, in the past five years, more than 4,000 bodies have been found
on the two shores of the Strait. To this figure must be added those who have disappeared.
26.
The Special Rapporteur also referred to the situation she had observed in Spain, where
she had seen a large number of Moroccans and sub-Saharans who said they had reached Europe
by transiting illegally through Morocco. During her visit to Spain, the Special Rapporteur
received information about several unsatisfactory aspects of efforts to counter irregular migration
attributable to poor cooperation on the part of the Moroccan authorities in combating irregular
emigration to Spain by Moroccans and persons from sub-Saharan Africa and to the obstacles that
Morocco erects to the readmission of third party nationals who illegally enter Spanish territory
from Moroccan territory.
27.
The Special Rapporteur noted the existence of a market in which regulated fares for sea
crossings vary depending on the passenger’s nationality and the points of departure and arrival.
According to the information received, well structured organized networks that traffic in and
smuggle persons operate both in the migrant’s country of origin and in the countries of transit
and destination. The Special Rapporteur was told that the Zodiac assault boats used by gangs
that organize the journey to Europe are purchased directly in Spain or in other European
countries. In Tangier, she visited the port, accompanied by the wali and the port authorities.
They showed her an unregistered Zodiac boat that had been seized. The Special Rapporteur was
informed that, in Morocco, all such boats must be registered for use.