The Council of the Moroccan Community Abroad (CCME) and the International University of Rabat (UIR) are holding a joint seminar on Tuesday 8 February 2022 from 9am to 6pm on the topic of "Minors on the move: Dynamics, Public Policies and Rights".
Since the end of the last century, migrant children and juveniles have become a major issue in debates and public policies on migration: a new legal-political concept has emerged: unaccompanied minors or unaccompanied -foreign- minors. Which is defined at the European level as "all third-country nationals under the age of 18 who enter the territory of the Member States unaccompanied by an adult who is responsible for them by law or in fact, and as long as they are not effectively dependent on such a person" (Resolution of the Council of the European Union, 26 June 1997).
Since then, the issue of “minors on the move” has been a matter of academic work, intense media coverage, lively debate and political instrumentalization, and even diplomatic crises. In addition to children, who are the first to be affected, and their families, more and more actors are directly or indirectly involved (governments, local authorities, associations, United Nations human rights bodies, intergovernmental organizations), while the policies implemented with regard to children are constantly torn between controlling migratory flows and respecting the rights of the child as laid down by international law.
Morocco is one of the many countries affected by this "trend", which has become structural and requires the mobilization of the authorities, but also of public and private actors.
Therefore, CCME and UIR, are holding this international seminar to establish the current state of research and analyze the specific features, similarities, and good practices and challenges faced by the various countries (Morocco, Spain, France, Italy, etc) and by the various international institutions and bodies.