African leaders have created a body to help coordinate national policies on migration, Morocco announced at the African Union (AU) summit on Monday.
AU leaders agreed to set up an organisation called the African Observatory for Migration and Development (OAMD), based in the Moroccan capital of Rabat, Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita told a press conference in Nouakchott, the Mauritanian capital.
“African leaders have taken the decision to task this important new tool with harmonising the national strategies of African states and improving interaction with partners (abroad),” he said.
The scheme, suggested by Morocco, comes amid a fresh crisis within the European Union (EU) over an influx of migrants taking the perilous trip across the Mediterranean.
But Bourita rejected an EU proposal to allow migrants rescued in international waters to request asylum in the EU from so-called “regional disembarkation platforms” located outside of Europe.
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Source: Seychelles News Agency
