Morocco has blocked access to migrants, UN refugee agency says News
Morocco has blocked access to migrants, UN refugee agency says

[JURIST] Morocco has prevented UN officials from visiting African migrants detained in the country despite repeated requests for access, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees [official website] reported Wednesday. The agency has said it fears that Morocco has forced many of the migrants to return to their home countries [JURIST report] in the face of persecution and despite valid asylum claims, although the Moroccan government denied many of the more extreme reports of its treatment of migrants. Morocco faces an increasingly tense immigration situation, as many sub-Saharan Africans use the country's border with the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla as a means to enter the EU [JURIST report]. The UNHCR has sought access to the migrants and called for a guarantee of proper asylum procedures. The UNHCR has a news release on the situation in Morocco. In related news, the European Commission [official website] on Wednesday released a report [news release] on the immigration situation in the Mediterranean, which highlighted the situation in Morocco as a point of concern. Aljazeera has more.

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