Morocco and Niger signed, Monday in Rabat, a declaration of understanding to intensify their cooperation in the fight against human trafficking through the exchange of experiences and best practices and capacity building of actors in this field.
The agreement was signed between the National Commission for the Coordination of Measures to Combat and Prevent Trafficking in Human Beings, whose chairmanship and permanent secretariat are provided by the Ministry of Justice, on the one hand, and the National Commission for the Coordination of Measures to Combat Trafficking in Persons and Smuggling of Migrants and the National Agency for Combating Trafficking in Persons and Smuggling of Migrants in the Republic of Niger, on the other hand, on the occasion of the commemoration of the International Day for the Elimination of Trafficking in Human Beings.
Speaking at the ceremony, Minister of Justice Abdellatif Ouahbi emphasized the distinguished dynamic that Morocco has experienced, under the impetus of King Mohammed VI, to develop a holistic national strategy based on a participatory approach to immigration, asylum and human trafficking, which resulted in the enactment in 2016 of the anti-trafficking Law 27.14.
The enactment of this law, he stressed, strengthened the national legal system by establishing a definition of human trafficking in accordance with international standards, qualifying it as a crime and recognizing the criminal responsibility of the legal person who commits it, while highlighting the obligation to confiscate the means used and to carry out identification and protection checks on victims, in addition to protecting witnesses, experts, victims and whistleblowers.
He also noted that a national commission has been established to coordinate the efforts of all its components (government departments, public institutions and civil society associations) to fight against this crime and dry up its sources, according to a national action plan well tied up and developed on the basis of a participatory approach that respects the responsibilities of each sector and contributes to the complementarity of the missions of the various stakeholders.
According to the Minister, engaging in the process of accession to international bilateral and multilateral conventions is an important step that would help reduce criminal phenomena by strengthening international cooperation in various areas, whether civil or criminal.
In this regard, Ouahbi said that the Ministry of Justice has concluded 79 conventions of judicial cooperation in the criminal field with various countries, whether European, American, African, Asian or Arab, stressing that these agreements include various mechanisms and means internationally recognized in the field of combating crime and its treatment, whether through the mechanism of extradition, the rogatory commission or the official complaint, in addition to strengthening this cooperation through the mechanism of transferring convicted persons to serve the remainder of their sentence in their country.
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