The Marrakech pact is a 34-page document setting out a “cooperative framework” for dealing with international migration. Limiting pressure on countries that have many migrants and promoting the self-reliance of newcomers are two of the points members will sign up for. This is a non-binding UN agreement. It is an answer to the European migration crisis occurred in 2015.
What are its aims ?
The redactors of the pact have elaborated 23 objectives. The goal of these objective is to better manage migration at local, national, regional and global levels. This aim involves several aims :
- Mitigate factors that stop people from building and maintaining livelihoods in their countries of origin;
- Reduce the risks and vulnerabilities migrants face at different stages of migration;
- Address concerns of states and communities and recognise that societies are undergoing demographic, economic, social and environmental changes;
- Create conditions that enable all migrants to enrich societies through their human, economic and social capacities, and facilitate their contributions to development at the local, national, regional and global levels.
Who signed the agreement ?
On 10th of December, The agreement was formally adopted by representatives of more than 150 governments in Marrakech, Morocco. As a reminder, the UN is composed of 193 countries.
Nevertheless, in many European countries, this agreement was far from accepted by all. For instance Denmark and the Netherlands have struggled to deliver full support for the agreement. Then, the Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said on Tuesday he would ask parliament to vote on whether to sign the agreement, in order to avoid the government collapsing.
Of course, the U.S of Trump is the leader of the slingshot and refuses to sign the agreement.
How to interpret this news
The world, and especially the West, is going through a populist wave. This ideology is mainly colored with anti-immigration feelings. Viktor Orban and Donald Trump are the representatives of this trend. Both of them refused to sign the Marrakech pact. This pact is a non-binding which means that States can refuse to apply this pact. But, it carries a strong symbolic image. Indeed, the non-signature shows peoples that they are being heard by their leaders. Immigration is less and less well seen in the Western world. This story is only one part of this trend.
