According to Islamic law (sharia), asylum is a long-standing institution. The persecuted have an important position within Islamic religious history, and believers are in principle obliged to offer them refuge. As a rule, Moroccan tradition holds that guests are accommodated for up to three days without receiving money in return. However, the reality relating to the treatment of refugees in Morocco is very different.

Morocco has signed the Geneva Convention on Refugees as well as the relevant Charter of the Organization of African Unity (OAU). Both agreements were drawn up in order to protect the individual interests of refugees vis a vis the state interests of the host countries. The dahir (decree) of 1957, which is applied as asylum law and is still in force today, is in violation of both above-mentioned Conventions because neither the status of refugees in the country, nor the exact decision-making procedures and criteria for the recognition of the refugee status are laid down.

Shortly after Morocco's independence in 1957, an Office for Refugees and Stateless Persons was set up in the foreign ministry, as was an appeal commission. The latter was headed by the interior minister or his representative. A member of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was allowed to take part in the appeal commission. During the 1980's, the following was common practice: the interior ministry, responsible for securing the country's borders, decided on refugee dossiers, the foreign ministry decided on cases involving diplomacy or such known persons. The interior ministry office responsible for the acceptance of refugees has since been disbanded without much furore.

Essential parts of the Moroccan criminal code originate from the days of the French protectorate. They concern themselves with three aspects of migration, which reveal the interests of the French rather than the Moroccan state, namely, emigration, illegal stay and human trafficking.

Emigration: the relevant dahire (decrees) from 15 November 1934 and from 8 November 1949 lay down that it is illegal and therefore punishable by law to use any other path of emigration than the prescribed one. Medical examinations and police investigations are provided for in the decrees.

Illegal stay: dahir No. 1-58-057 from 29 October 1958 and other legal provisions allow for the deportation of foreigners, in particular if they have come into contact with the criminal law (a practise which has continuously been criticised as Double peine - double jeopardy).

Human trafficking: human trafficking is a criminal act. In case of death, the perpetrators can be sentenced for murder.

A new migration law, which is supposed to comply with the new specifications as laid down by the West, is currently being drafted.

He is 28-years-old and has been in Morocco since 1999. At the moment he assists in the reception centre in Rabat for migrants from the sub-Saharan region.

Up to now, no in-depth studies exist on the situation of recognised refugees and asylum seekers in Morocco, let alone of those refused or refugees in transit. These last years, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has played a central conceptual role in the emerging research on the subject.

The Study and Research Centre on Migration and Human Rights (CERMEDH), located in the law faculty of the University of Casablanca, for example, was set up on the initiative by the IOM. Amongst other things, the centre works together with various Moroccan governmental and non-governmental organisations as well as with relevant authorities dealing with issues of migration and humanitarian law.

At the moment, this new institution is setting up an extensive archive and list of publications on asylum law in the Mahgreb states with a view to documenting and examining the role of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the Charter of the Organization of African Unity. Until the summer of 2002, Prof. Elmadmad, president of the CERMEDH, conducted a seminar on international law with a focus on migration.

Because of the lack of data, we do not attempt to make quantitative statements in relation to the questions posed in this book. Instead, we want to provide an insight into the living conditions and the reality of refugees and migrants. Between the summer of 2000 and the spring of 2001, we documented 16 cases altogether. In addition, we were able to draw on newspapers and other publications as well as on the work of local NGO's, such as the Moroccan Human Rights Organisation (AMDH), the Caritas, the Protestant Church and the Collective of Refugees in Morocco Supported by the UNHCR (Collectif des Réfugiés Assistés par le HCR au Maroc, CRAHM). Our investigation is therefore based on reports from several hundred people affected as well as their immediate confidants.

The UNHCR plays a central role for recognised refugees and asylum seekers in Morocco. As mentioned above, the interior ministry office responsible for the recognition of refugees was closed down in the 1990's, leaving only the UNHCR to provide official protection for recognised refugees. The acceptance rates for the refugee status are extraordinary low: 330 refugees and 60 pending cases in 1998. The UNHCR is based in Casablanca. The office staff is compromised of Mohammed M'Jid, the commissioner responsible for maintaining external contacts and Aïsha Majnoun, who is responsible for deciding on the cases, as well as one more employee.

In countries such as Morocco, where there is no national state authority for the recognition of refugees, the UNHCR is obliged to reach its decision according to the criteria laid down in the Geneva Convention. After all, it was formed with the aim of safeguarding compliance with the Convention. However, in none of the files available to us did we find details on the reasons for a rejection or the acceptance of a claim. It simply said yes or no. Decisions could not be re-examined by independent authorities, leaving those affected feeling more at the mercy of the UNHCR than being protected by it.

Moreover, a recognition by the UNHCR does not necessarily lead to the Moroccan state granting a residency permit to the concerned refugee. Indeed, the refugees we could contact were therefore living illegally in the country, with no possibility to rent a flat, go to the doctor, send their children to school, or to work. They seemed to constantly be running the gauntlet rather than living in dignity in exile because in need of protection.

Independently from each other, members of the AMDH, the Caritas, the Protestant Church and people from the refugee collective CRAHM (Collectif des Réfugiés Assistés par le HCR au Maroc) reported: the lack of a residency or work permit reduces refugees to second-class human beings who are at the mercy of the state without any legal safeguards. Up to now, those affected were consequently dependent on the UNHCR, in particular financially.

At the end of November 2000, the UNHCR in Casablanca cut the usual cash payments to at least 73 refugees, in some cases even with retrospective effect. Thereupon, the refugees formed the CRAHM and on 14. December 2000 publicised a collective remonstrative letter. One month later, they organised a rally in front of the UNHCR building in order to point out their immanent destitution. But the protests remained unsuccessful. Since then, refugees have to rely more and more on the help of relatives or acquaintances.

Since the protests, the UNHCR has implemented a 24-hour security system guarding the building. The refugees now have to pick up their money on different days to prevent them from seeing and organising each other.

Even lodging a claim with the UNHCR increasingly bears risks now. The fact that Mrs. Majnoun and Mr. M'Jid are Moroccan citizens is peculiar: UNHCR employees in country offices are supposed to be non-citizens so as to avoid loyalty conflicts. During our interviews with refugees, many voiced the suspicion that the UNHCR works together with the Moroccan interior ministry, the police and the judiciary. Asylum claims lodged with the UNHCR, we were told, often result in immediate deportation or imprisonment.