High Commissioner sends senior team to Morocco

The High Commissioner has sent a team of senior UNHCR headquarters staff to Morocco, led by our leading manager for North Africa and the Middle East and including specialists from our Europe Bureau and the Department of International Protection. This follows missions over the past week by other teams from our Madrid office to the Spanish enclaves of Melilla and Ceuta, as well as to the Canary Islands.

In addition, Mr. Guterres has written to the chairman of the Geneva Migration Group asking him to convene as soon as possible a meeting of the group to discuss this extremely complex situation involving primarily economic migrants, but including also people in need of international protection - and therefore of concern to UNHCR.

As the High Commissioner told you on Friday, within large migration flows like this one, there are often people who are fleeing conflict and persecution and who deserve access to proper asylum procedures. While UNHCR recognises the legitimate right of governments to take measures to manage illegal migration, we strongly urge authorities to respect international protection principles, particularly against refoulement - or forcibly returning people to a country where they face persecution; to treat everyone humanely; and to ensure that all asylum seekers are given access to fair and proper procedures.

Mr. Guterres, other senior headquarters staff and our offices in Madrid and Rabat have been in regular contact with Spanish and Moroccan authorities. Despite these ongoing efforts, we remain deeply concerned by alarming reports on the plight of these desperate people.

UNHCR is fully committed to help find solutions aimed at preventing the kinds of tragedies we've seen repeatedly in the Mediterranean, the Gulf of Aden and other parts of the world.