Morocco, IOM Launch ‘Group of Friends on Sport & Migration’ in Geneva

This is a multilateral initiative based in Geneva that aims to set a multilateral framework for consultation on the role of sport as a lever for social inclusion and migration governance.

In his remote remarks at the opening of an event organized on this occasion, Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation, and Moroccan Expatriates Nasser Bourita noted that the launch of this Group represents an acknowledgment of a tool too long relegated to the periphery of statecraft.

The minister highlighted the role of sport, a domain where social friction is temporarily suspended to become a mechanism for social inclusion, conduit for youth engagement, and a buffer against vulnerability.

Bourita also recalled that Morocco’s commitment to the theme of this Group of Friends falls in line with the Vision of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, the African Union Leader on Migration, who framed migration as a potential rather than a crisis.

He emphasized that, in the context of Africa, the world’s youngest continent, sport is a universal language of resilience and hope for African youth, adding that the initiative of this Group of Friends is guided by this spirit of shared destiny.

The minister also stressed that the African Migration Observatory, headquartered in Rabat, will contribute indispensable assets to this Group of Friends’ proceedings, by providing strategic analysis, reliable data, and evidence-based research.

The creation of this Group of Friends on Sport and Migration was among the major conclusions of the High-Level event organized in New York on September 26, 2025 by Morocco and the IOM, on the sidelines of the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly.

Editorial team/le7tv