Rabat Process

The Euro-African Dialogue on Migration and Development (Rabat Process) is a regional migration dialogue. Since 2006, the Dialogue has offered a framework for consultation, bringing together countries of origin, transit and destination of the migration routes linking Central, West and Northern Africa with Europe. 57 state partners and additional key stakeholders, including the European Union (EU) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), are involved. The result is an open Dialogue between national authorities about technical and political questions related to migration and development. The Rabat Process was founded in 2006 as a dialogue platform for national authorities of the countries of origin, transit and destination along the West and Central African migration routes. The initiative was based on the acknowledgement that finding a response to migration flows required a coordinated response from all concerned countries. At the time, major migration routes crossed the Strait of Gibraltar or led to the Canary Islands. The conviction that it was not exclusively the responsibility of Spain and Morocco to manage these migration routes gave the impetus to France, Morocco, Senegal and Spain to create the Rabat Process. The dialogue was officially established at the first Euro-African Ministerial Conference on Migration and Development organised in Rabat in 2006.