Morocco adopted a national strategy on immigration and asylum in 2013 and outlined plans for a formal asylum law. Even after more than a decade, that law has still not been implemented.
“In practice, UNHCR registers asylum seekers and determines refugee status in application of its mandate set out in the 1951 Refugee Convention and its statute,” Muriel Jurami, the interim representative of the UNHCR in Morocco, told Al Jazeera.
Al Jazeera contacted the Moroccan government for comment but did not receive a response.
Recognized refugees can then obtain documents and apply for a residence permit.
Jurami said that the UNHCR has called for “the adoption of a comprehensive national asylum law in Morocco”, arguing that it would bring “clarity, predictability and consistency” to procedures, establish appeal mechanisms and formally codify the rights of recognized refugees.
Without this, organizations working with refugees say protection rests on an ad hoc system rather than a coherent legal framework.
“This is an unusual situation globally: a sovereign state effectively handing over core security functions to an international agency, not by explicit legal design, but by default,” said Rashid Chakri of the Fondation Orient-Occident.
“Refugees arriving in Morocco today face a system that is not designed to protect them in the medium or long term,” he said. “Many will spend years in legal uncertainty – registered but undocumented, present but undocumented, seeing the state primarily as a migration management challenge rather than as rights holders.”
There is no state-run refugee accommodation system for those who reach Morocco. Support groups fill a part of the void, but only for the most vulnerable and only when resources allow. Some asylum seekers sleep on mudflats or under bridges. Others rely heavily on donations for temporary shelter, food or legal aid.
On paper, recognized refugees have the right to work. However, in reality, access to work is limited. Administrative barriers, recognition of qualifications and labor market conditions all restrict opportunities, while obtaining a residence permit can take time, said UNHCR.
According to UNHCR, out of more than 22,000 registered refugees and asylum seekers, only 80 refugees – including 14 women – had gained access to eight internships as well as formal jobs.
Without housing, money or qualifications, refugees struggle to find employment.
Before the war, Ali was in school and hoped to go to university. In Rabat, that future seems distant. He has completed a short course in elderly care and now works as an unpaid apprentice, but says his heart condition often makes even this difficult.
He could have tried to reach Europe via the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta or Melilla in North Africa, but he says his health makes it impossible, while crossing the Mediterranean Sea is too dangerous and too expensive.
Meanwhile, resettlement, which UNHCR grants in some cases based on vulnerability and available quotas, and is often touted by refugees as the only real path forward, seems distant.
In 2025, Jurami said, “hundreds” of resettlement proposals were presented to countries, primarily in North America and Europe, which are becoming increasingly resistant to allowing in refugees.
So Ali waits, for a verdict that will probably never come, and with the constant fear of being picked up by the police and sent south.
