MESSAHEL TELLS AMBASSADOR MIGRATION PRIMARILY AN

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ALGIERS 000727

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/15/2016
TAGS: PREL SMIG PHUM AG XA
SUBJECT: MESSAHEL TELLS AMBASSADOR MIGRATION PRIMARILY AN
AFRICAN ISSUE

REF: A. ALGIERS 657

B. ALGIERS 496

Classified By: Ambassador Richard W. Erdman,
for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)

MIGRATION WITHIN AFRICA IS THE CENTRAL PROBLEM
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1. (C) In an April 10 meeting with MFA Minister-Delegate
Messahel, Ambassador pressed again for an inclusive regional
approach to the migration problem that included Morocco and
urged Algeria to reconsider participation in the Rabat-hosted
conference on migration. Messahel termed the recent AU
experts meeting on migration successful in developing a
common framework for dealing with the issue; argued that
Morocco had excluded itself by leaving the African Union;
said the Rabat conference would focus only on the European
dimension of the problem, when in fact African countries were
themselves the main destination of migrants; criticized
Spain's failure to support projects in Africa that would help
address the roots of the migration problem despite it being
just 14 kilometers from Africa; and said that Morocco would
be invited to an AU-European meeting in Tripoli on June 6-7
and that cooperation in this Five Plus Five Framework would
continue. (End Summary.)



2. (U) Ambassador, accompanied by PolEc Chief, met April 10
with Minister Delegate for African and Maghreb Affairs
Messahel. MFA Director General for African Affairs Chergui
was also in attendance. Asked for an assessment of the April
3-5 meetings of experts on migration and development,
Messahel called the meetings a success, noting that 50 or so
African countries had participated and had succeeded in
creating a common framework for addressing the migration
issue. Messahel said it was important to address the root
cause of migration, which was underdevelopment in Africa.
Migration within Africa, stressed Messahel, was the biggest
problem; out of the total, relatively few African migrants
reached Europe. Some of the main destinations of African
migrants were South Africa, Congo, Algeria, and the Ivory
Coast. Within Africa there were countries of origin,
transit, and destination. Algeria, for example, was less and
less a country of transit for Europe and increasingly a
country of destination. Fighting illegal immigration, mostly
from the south, was vital. Messahel said the vast majority
of migrants in the Tamanrasset area of southern Algeria, for
example, were in the country unlawfully.

ALGERIA AND AU PURSUING A GLOBAL APPROACH
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3. (C) Messahel told Ambassador Algeria was concerned about
human trafficking and wanted to manage the flows across
countries and borders. Because the issue was primarily an
African issue, with the greatest impact on Africa, it
required an AU framework of discussion. This was why Algeria
was not interested in Rabat's more localized approach that
focused on migration to Europe. Algeria was not against the
Moroccan-French-Spanish migration agenda, he claimed, but was
not necessarily for it either. He stressed the desire in
Algiers to treat the problem globally. Noting the migration
concerns of North Africa were different from those of West
Africa, East Africa or the south, the African Union (AU)
approach was to address all the issues together. Asked if
there had been differences over the idea of creating "welcome
centers," Messahel said that issue was not addressed at the
conference, adding that was an idea being pushed by the
Europeans that did not have much appeal to African countries.


ALGERIA: MOROCCO EXCLUDED ITSELF BY LEAVING AFRICAN UNION
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4. (C) Expressing agreement that a global approach to the
migration problem was necessary, Ambassador said for this
reason we hoped Algeria would reconsider the issue of
Moroccan participation and Algerian attendance at the
Rabat-hosted conference this summer. Messahel argued that
Algeria and the AU did not exclude Morocco from the AU
experts meeting. Rather, Morocco excluded itself by leaving
the AU. Provided Morocco embraced AU positions, it could
reintegrate itself in the AU at any time and participate,
Messahel said somewhat ingenuously. Ambassador noted that
although not a member of the AU, Morocco was geographically a
part of Africa and certainly part of the migration problem.
It was only logical that it would be included in discussions.

ALGIERS 00000727 002 OF 002


Messahel repeated that Morocco had excluded itself. The
issue should not be politicized.

MOROCCO, FRANCE, AND SPAIN PURSUING LOCAL APPROACH
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5. (C) Messahel said France, Spain, and Morocco were free to
organize meetings as they liked but claimed they should not
assume Algeria would participate in such non-AU events
without prior consultation. He also suggested that Spain was
only interested in solving the problem insofar as it impacted
on Spain. For example, he was unaware of a single Spanish
project that benefited Africa in combating illegal
immigration, even though Spain was 14 kilometers from Africa.
Why, asked Messahel, should Algeria join France and Spain in
Rabat when the AU was tackling the problem at its roots? The
AU had a global approach that included development in
addressing migration. That approach did not interest a
country like Spain, which sought a local approach. Messahel
said 75% of Spain's migrants came from Latin America, which
seemed not to concern Madrid since these migrants easily
integrated thanks to their common religion and language.
Fifteen percent of Spain's illegal immigrants come from
Morocco, 5 percent from eastern Europe, and one percent from
Africa other than Morocco. The real burden of African
migrants fell to Africa, where Messahel said large numbers of
migrants resided in countries like the Ivory Coast.

AU TO INVITE MOROCCO UNDER BOUTEFLIKA'S "CAIRO FORMULA"
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6. (C) Asked if Algeria supported discussions within the
Five Plus Five framework, Messahel said "most definitely."
Messahel added that that the AU was working on organizing an
Africa-Europe meeting to be held in Libya June 6-7. The
meeting would be organized within the AU framework, and
Morocco would be included (or at least invited) pursuant to
the AU "Cairo Formula" (proposed by President Bouteflika in
2000) whereby Morocco would be included and the Polisario
excluded. On the way out of the meeting, Chergui told us it
was not clear whether the Europeans would agree to attend the
meeting in Libya. Chergui added there would also be a number
of follow-on regional meetings in Africa, because the nature
of the immigration problem within Africa varied from region
to region. Morocco would be invited to participate in these
sub-regional discussions, he said.

ABUJA ACCORD WOULD PAVE WAY FOR
SUDAN'S ACCEPTANCE OF REHATTING
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7. (C) On the subject of Darfur, Messahel told Ambassador
that Algeria, like the U.S., Sudan, Europe and Africa, was
looking for a global accord to come out of the meetings in
Abuja. A global accord would make Sudan's acceptance of the
rehatting of the AMIS easier. Algeria supported rehatting by
the end of September and to that end wanted a global
agreement by the end of April. Messahel said a global accord
was needed to pave the way for Sudanese acceptance of
rehatting and keep negotiations from coming to an impasse.
The Sudanese demanded that rehatting occur in the context of
an overall agreement, even though this was not the case for
the AU. Ambassador noted that a rapid agreement was
necessary to stop the bloodshed.

ERDMAN