What will come next?<\/strong><\/h2>\nOrganizations like the High Atlas Foundation (HAF) offer some solutions. Beginning in 2020, law school students at the University Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah in partnership with HAF will provide pro-bono legal aid to migrants in the Fez region, in particular victims of trafficking, young people, and women.<\/p>\n
Fez is estimated to house tens of thousands of migrants, many of which come from Sub-Saharan regions of Africa and live within the \u201cnew\u201d districts of the city. These districts are often \u201cmodest or poor,\u201d and with limited legal access, migrants have trouble finding work. In a study of migrants in Fes, only 53 percent of respondents reported that they are or had been engaged in paid work since their arrival.<\/p>\n
Providing legal aid to migrants reduces the potential of trafficking networks and smugglers from taking advantage, while also offering law students the chance to gain valuable experience in the field, and connecting migrants and women to CSOs to develop skills and build their own cooperatives or businesses, which can reduce youth unemployment. With a stronger legal and economic support system, migrants are more likely to establish roots rather than risk irregular migration to Europe.<\/p>\n
Developmental and human rights organizations are increasingly offering support to migrants around the country, yet it is important that organizations take further steps at the local level. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has repeatedly warned that certain quarantine measures and restrictions on free movement must meet international human rights standards. Rather than delaying asylum claims, they can be processed remotely, where restrictions prevent face-to-face interviews. Extending residency permits to those in-need can increase health access to migrants in areas affected by the pandemic.<\/p>\n
In May, in partnership with the Moroccan government, the UNHCR and the National Council of the Medical Association teamed up to provide increased health care access and medicines for asylum seekers and refugees in Morocco.<\/p>\n
Moroccan migration policies support a humanitarian approach and prohibit manifestations of racism. However, limited accessibility of resources for migrants and legal obstacles still persist.<\/p>\n
Further steps can include greater health and legal accessibility for vulnerable migrant groups, including access to psychosocial support, emergency accommodation, pre-school education, childcare, mediation, and occasional emergency aid (such as in the case of a lockdown). October has historically been the most active month for migrants crossing from Morocco to Spain, so it is important to adopt these steps to prevent a surge in dangerous, irregular border crossings.<\/p>\n
Jacqueline Skalski-Fouts is a Global Studies undergraduate student at the University of Virginia.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"– The Forgotten Victims Of The Pandemic: An Ongoing Migration Crisis \u2022\u00a0Arabic:\u00a0Al-Watan Voice, 16 Jul 2020. \u2022\u00a0French: Djazairess, 26 Jul 2020. USMBA Law students participate in skills-building workshops in preparation for opening a law clinic. February 2020, High Atlas Foundation. As Europe closed borders and suspended flights in early March to combat the spread of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":16669,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[47,121,113],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/USMB.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16700"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16700"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16700\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19633,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16700\/revisions\/19633"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}