The virtual meeting, held in partnership with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), was an opportunity to highlight this operation, which is part of the European Union support program to Morocco's migration policies and which helped understand the new trends in international migration.
The survey, which targeted Moroccans Abroad and returning expatriates, was conducted between August,2018, and January, 2019, on a representative sample of 15,000 households, including 8,200 expatriates, 4,100 returning expatriates and 2,700 non-migrants.
Speaking on this occasion, Director General of Statistics and National Accounts at the HCP, Mohammed Bircharef said that the survey provides essential data that will help shape a number of national migration policies and supplies information to host countries on the international migration phenomenon in a quantified and documented manner.
Bircharef also highlighted the importance of migration, particularly in the context of issues on the agenda of sustainable development goals (SDGs), whose implementation "will undoubtedly allow to act on the determinants of this migration."
For his part, head of the governance section of the EU delegation to Morocco, Severin Strohal stressed that this survey marks the essential partnership between the EU and Morocco on collective migration issues.
According to him, the results of the survey will help strengthen knowledge of the migration phenomenon, in which Morocco plays a central role for Europe and the African continent.
UNFPA Resident Representative in Morocco, Luis Mora noted that the survey is the first source to shed light on many aspects of migration. It is also a survey that seeks to capture not just one, but rather multiple forms of migration as well as an unprecedented source for the appreciation of the diversity of migration forms in Morocco, he said.
The second phase of this survey will be conducted in 2021 among refugees and asylum seekers, irregular migrants and regularized immigrants.