The Rabat Process, formally the Euro-African Dialogue on Migration and Development, is an intergovernmental consultative framework bringing together roughly 60 countries from the European Union, North Africa, West Africa and Central Africa, together with the European Commission and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). It was inaugurated at a ministerial conference hosted by Morocco in Rabat in July 2006, in response to a sharp rise in irregular maritime arrivals to the Canary Islands the previous year.
The dialogue is non-binding and operates through ministerial conferences, senior officials' meetings, and thematic workshops. Its agenda has evolved across successive multi-year action plans adopted in Rabat (2006), Paris (2008), Dakar (2011), Rome (2014), Marrakesh (2018) and Cádiz (2022). Current pillars typically include:
- Development benefits of migration, including diaspora engagement and remittances
- Legal migration and mobility, such as labour pathways and student exchanges
- Protection of migrants and asylum seekers, including vulnerable groups
- Prevention of irregular migration, smuggling and trafficking
- Return, readmission and reintegration
The Rabat Process is one of two principal regional migration dialogues linking Africa and Europe, alongside the Khartoum Process (2014), which covers the Horn of Africa route. Both feed into the broader Joint Valletta Action Plan adopted at the 2015 EU–Africa summit and are supported operationally by a secretariat managed by the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD).
Critics, including civil society networks and some academic researchers, argue that the Process has tilted over time toward externalising EU border control and conditioning development cooperation on migration management, while delivering limited legal pathways. Supporters describe it as a rare standing forum where origin, transit and destination states discuss migration on a relatively equal footing, generating shared vocabulary and pilot projects even when formal agreements remain elusive.
Example
At the Marrakesh ministerial conference in May 2018, participating states adopted a five-year action plan structured around the objectives of the Global Compact for Migration negotiated later that year.
Frequently asked questions
Around 60 states from the EU, North Africa, West Africa and Central Africa, together with the European Commission and ECOWAS. Membership has expanded gradually since the founding 2006 conference in Morocco.
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