Updated
Morocco Grants Residence Permits to 2,624 Illegal Immigrants, Accepts 549 Asylum Requests
Maghreb Arab Press reports on Morocco’s accelerated handling of requests for asylum and permanent residence status for illegal immigrants:
Moroccan authorities have granted residence permits to 2,624 illegal immigrants and accepted 549 asylum requests, according to provisional results of the extraordinary operation of regularization.
Since the outset of this operation, the number of accepted requests to regularize the administrative situation of illegal foreigners in Morocco reached 5,742 (3,075 requests for men against 2,667 for women), according to data presented on Wednesday by Interior ministry representative, Mohamed Youssef, during a meeting on the new national immigration and asylum policy, held by the ministry in charge of Moroccan expats and immigration affairs, in collaboration with the inter-ministerial delegation for human rights and the National Council for Human Rights.
The data show that registered requests reached up to Sept. 9 around 17,757 requests made by citizens from 101 foreign countries, including 5,488 women.
Concerning asylum requests, director of consular affairs at the foreign affairs ministry Mustapha El Bouazzaoui said that 549 requests were accepted, including 168 requests made by women and 134 by minors.
The first phase of granting refugees cards concerned 21 nationalities, including 47.8% from Côte d’Ivoire, 23.3% from Iraq, 6.31% from Palestine, while women represented 30.32% of people recognized as refugees until July 2014…[Full Story]
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