The stakeholder roundtable benefited from the attendance of over twenty five representatives from the non-governmental, international and governmental sectors. The event debated the issue of access to services for irregular sub Saharan migrants – either in transit or as permanent residents in Morocco. The meeting also served as a platform for exchanging good practices on access to rights and sharing ideas regarding the gaps in the current Moroccan policy and legislation. The roundtable discussions reiterated the need for better stakeholder engagement and the importance of identifying new potential players in the migration field. The ideas exchanged have a valuable complementary role to the IPPR analysis of fifty-four interviews with sub-Saharan immigrants to Morocco and twenty stakeholders.

In preparation for the start of the field research of the project’s third case study research on the return and reintegration of irregular migrants in Morocco, a two day training session with the new fieldworkers. The fieldwork will be based on sixty qualitative interviews with returnee irregular Moroccan migrants from Europe.

In a separate event, the project’s steering committee members met for the third time since the start of the project and discussed the overall progress of the work taking place in Morocco. They also shared ideas on the policy briefing on the current legislative framework which influences access to rights of Sub-Saharan migrants living in Morocco. The paper is due to be published by early June.

During the course of the visit dRPC and IPPR staff delivered training to four field researchers who will be interviewing people who have returned to Nigeria having previously migrated to Europe irregularly. This will form part of research to be published later in the year investigating the policies needed for the return and reintegration of migrants that is both effective and safe.

All four fieldworkers brought fascinating individual expertise in this area. Three currently worked for high profile organisations working with vulnerable migrants in Nigeria including WOTCLEF in Abuja and Save the Child in the Northern city of Sokoto. One had recently returned from running an NGO providing humanitarian assistance to Sub Saharan migrants who were living ‘in transit’ in Libya and seeking passage to Europe.

On the final day, the team convened a roundtable event with fifteen stakeholders from NGOs, Nigerian and UK government agencies and international bodies. Participants discussed the findings from Beyond Irregularity’s first ‘case study’ looking at human trafficking from Nigeria to the UK. The research investigates the scale, characteristics and current policy responses to this issue. It sets out the actions needed to provide a collaborative and sustainable response to the issue from stakeholders in the UK, Nigeria and internationally. The research encompasses forty in-depth interviews with trafficked people in the UK, a representative poll in Nigeria on trafficking awareness and fifty interviews with Nigerian and UK stakeholders. Findings from this study will be published in the summer.

Beyond Irregularity stakeholders meeting on 9th March 2012 at IPPR

A wide range of experts and practitioners met to discuss the research preliminary findings on human trafficking from Nigeria to the UK and its implications for trafficking policy in the UK.

This seminar proved to be a timely initiative. The need for collaboration both within the UK and across the border with European and source countries was emphasised in the seminar debate. Many stakeholders also shared concerns about the high number of people trafficked from Nigeria and the specific challenges that this type of trafficking posed.

In addition to the IPPR project team, its partner organisations and the project advisory board, seminar attendees were from a variety of interested institutions and organisations, such as the Home Office, UKHTC, Hibiscus, Stepping Stones, Salvation Army, Stop the Traffik and Anti-Slavery International.