So the best understanding, an understanding between friends, says the minister. A completely new relationship is now emerging between Morocco and Germany, “very dynamic and extremely interesting,” says the minister. It sounds as if the rulers of the two countries have always been the best of friends.
Monday at the Interior Ministry of Morocco, a colonial building of oriental beauty stands here in a palm garden. Inside, Nancy Faeser has just sat down in a conference room with her Moroccan counterpart Abdelouafi Laftit. The Federal Minister of the Interior traveled to Rabat, accompanied by the Special Representative for Migration Agreements Joachim Stamp. The Social Democrat and the Liberal are a team that wants to change the direction of migration policy. After years of Moroccan-German radio silence, a “migration partnership” is to be initiated, “on an equal footing,” as Faeser emphasizes at every opportunity.
A useful network is planned that will promote legal migration into the German labor market and pave the way for young people with simple qualifications to enter the Federal Republic. Irregular migration into the German asylum system, however, should be pushed back. In Germany, Faeser knows, many people want the second thing in particular: noticeably more deportations of rejected asylum seekers, preferably through a return agreement and immediately.
The message for Morocco: People take each other seriously
However, a trip to Morocco is not very suitable for fulfilling this wish. Faeser and Stamp say it’s more about long-term relationship work, about the delicate plant of trust that may only bear fruit after years. Just don’t raise too high expectations about taking back rejected asylum seekers – that’s their message to Germany. The message for Morocco: People take each other seriously.
What follows in Rabat is a tour d’horizon through three Moroccan ministries; Faeser first leads to Interior Minister Laftit. The two spoke for almost an hour in Rabat about joint combat against terrorism, about the training of Moroccan border police by the federal police, and also about the desire to curb drug trafficking, organized crime and the smuggling of migrants. Morocco taking back asylum seekers? This also comes up, certainly, carefully wrapped in pleasantries.
The plan is to “strengthen and further develop the excellent cooperation in the areas of security, migration, disaster control and cross-border crime,” says a “declaration of intent” signed by Faeser and Laftit. The aim is police cooperation, but also stronger “mechanisms” for the mobility of skilled workers “as well as those for return, readmission and reintegration.”
Concrete targets, a time horizon for the asylum seeker question? Nothing like that comes from Faeser’s lips. “What I would like to focus on is to exploit the possibility of legal, regulated migration. The modern German Skilled Immigration Act provides the basis for this,” is all she says. The aim is to “put a stop to smugglers in order to reduce irregular migration”.
Migration as a means of pressure is not an ineffective instrument
Nancy Faeser, it is clear, avoids any appearance of wanting to exert pressure in Rabat. The word Western Sahara is never mentioned in their public appearances. Morocco claims sovereignty over the desert region occupied in 1975, Germany rejects this, the matter escalated in 2021. The Moroccan government broke off diplomatic relations with Germany – and almost no longer took back any rejected asylum seekers. Migration as a means of pressure is not an ineffective instrument. But out of interest in Morocco as a business location, the federal government now wants to, well, get back into the conversation.
However, Faeser’s visit leaves it open whether the planned migration agreement can have a significant impact. 3,660 Moroccans who were required to leave the country were living in Germany at the end of June. 2762 cannot be deported because they are entitled to toleration. That leaves 898 people who could be transferred back if Morocco helps issue papers – not a huge group. There are obviously other reasons why there is still great interest in a partnership in Berlin. Moroccans who are required to leave the country are considered by German security authorities to be difficult clients who commit crimes at an above-average rate. One would like to get rid of them. This is also how the references to the German-Moroccan fight against crime should be understood. Even if no one wants to say it out loud.
It was already evening in Rabat when the Federal Minister of the Interior appeared in front of a fountain in the Moroccan Ministry of Labor. Here she met Younes Sekkouri, Minister for Small Business, Employment and Skills. He seems elated after the meeting. Like him, the German visitor is “very enthusiastic” about labor migration, says Sekkouri. Faeser wants to offer workers from Morocco privileged access to the German labor market, especially in the care sector. To this end, it offers the prospect of language courses, further qualifications in Germany, and more generosity in the recognition of professional qualifications and preliminary contracts.
Now you can of course ask yourself what interest Morocco has in letting trained workers go – and in getting rejected and sometimes criminal asylum seekers back. Is this ring exchange possible with monetary payments? In Faeser’s environment, money doesn’t play a role. Rather, the Moroccan government sees itself as having to offer perspectives to the baby boomer generation. Around 40 percent of young Moroccans cannot find a job after completing an apprenticeship or studying. Quite a few are therefore guided to Europe by private companies, but often fail there – partly because of language problems. Morocco’s government now hopes that a regular agreement will create reliability and that the country’s youth will one day return home highly qualified.
However, Morocco’s labor minister makes it clear that things won’t be easy. His country “naturally has a great need for a variety of skilled workers”; there is a shortage of engineers and doctors, for example. Stayed here, in other words. Germany will probably have to forego immigration relief for some professions if the partnership is to succeed. However, the German Skilled Immigration Act does not provide for the exclusion of certain professions. Labor Minister Sekkouri doesn’t dwell on such details for long. He is enthusiastic about the “good vibes,” he says, the good atmosphere that Minister Faeser spreads. He spontaneously grabs the visitor’s arm and the two laugh.
Tuesday morning, third stop on the Faeser trip, the Interior Minister stands beaming in a hall the size of a temple. The hand she is squeezing belongs to Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita, the man who called on all ministries in his country in 2021 to suspend “all contact and interaction” with German institutions and political foundations. There are “deep misunderstandings” in the Western Sahara issue.
So now the grief should be forgotten, you want to look forward, somehow. However, how harmonious things will be remains uncertain. Bourita, who is also responsible for Moroccans abroad, does not appear in front of the press after 30 minutes of conversation. A podium that was already ready for him is hastily pushed aside. Faeser steps alone to a microphone. “I had an exceptionally good visit to Morocco,” she says. Both sides worked “very closely” on a partnership; there are “very similar interests”. The minister is then asked what she thinks about the proposal from the CDU/CSU and the FDP to handle asylum procedures outside Europe in the future. All North African states reject this. The minister makes it clear that she doesn’t think much of it. Migration agreements with individual countries of origin are “more effective”. Nancy Faeser is now in a hurry, time to return.