COMEXI-PCNS Webinar Series 2026: Protecting Migrants’ Rights under Externalized Migration Control: A Comparative Dialogue between Morocco and Mexico
The Policy Center for the New South (PCNS) and the Mexican Council on Foreign Relations (COMEXI) organized a joint webinar under the theme “Protecting Migrants’ Rights under Externalized Migration Control: A Comparative Dialogue between Morocco and Mexico” on June 4, 2026.
Migration governance increasingly unfolds under strong external pressures that reshape national protection systems. The European Union’s growing reliance on the extension of the safe third country concept places Morocco at the center of a strategy that seeks to manage asylum claims beyond EU territory. This approach affects access to international protection, procedural guarantees, and the effective enjoyment of migrants’ rights along North African migration routes. Mexico faces a parallel dynamic under sustained pressure from the United States to contain migration flows toward the northern border. Through bilateral arrangements, enforcement cooperation, and expanded migration control responsibilities, Mexico increasingly operates as a buffer state. These pressures directly influence asylum processing, migrant reception conditions, and the treatment of people in transit, particularly those from Central America and the Caribbean.
Despite their different regional settings, Morocco and Mexico confront structurally comparable challenges. Both countries navigate complex roles as origin, transit, destination, and return spaces while responding to powerful external actors that shape their migration policies. This convergence creates a strong analytical case for comparison. A comparative perspective allows a clearer understanding of how externalization strategies affect migrants’ rights across regions, how national institutions respond under constraint, and where policy space remains for rights-based approaches.
By bringing together perspectives from North Africa and Latin America, the webinar analyzed how externalized migration governance reshaped the protection of migrants’ rights in key transit contexts. It compared how Morocco and Mexico responded to growing responsibilities imposed by powerful destination regions, particularly through the expansion of the safe third country logic in Europe and intensified migration control cooperation with the United States. The discussion identified policy approaches aimed at preserving protection standards while managing complex migration flows and highlighted institutional practices offering concrete pathways for rights-based governance. By connecting African and Latin American perspectives, the webinar also contributed to strengthening cross-regional academic and policy dialogue on migrant protection.
