The new issue of Migration Policy Practice focuses on the migration challenges facing the countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).



The first article in this issue, by Enas El Fergany from the League of Arab States (LAS), addresses the important topic of how to promote regional migration cooperation in the Arab region, which hosts more than 30 million international migrants. The LAS has recently established an Arab Regional Consultative Process on Migration, which is in the process of launching an Arab Information System on Migration.



The second article, by Charef Mohamed, focuses on migration policy changes in Morocco, including reforms to the migration and asylum policy prompted by the Sept 2013 report of the Conseil National des Droits de l’Homme, as well as the regularization camThe third article, by Michael Collyer, Bashair Ahmed, Markus Breines, Vanessa Iaria and Elisa Pascucci, questions the validity of using the concept of “root causes of migration”, which according to the authors has two significant weaknesses: (1) it does not provide a basis for differentiating between different groups of people with different needs and opportunities to move; and (2) it fails to account for onward migration.



The fourth article, by Agnes Tillinac, discusses the subject of human trafficking in the MENA region. The article presents new data on trafficking based on research conducted in 2014 in Iraq, Libya and

Syrian Arab Republic. The article stresses the need to look at the way in which humanitarian crises can increase human trafficking, and change its patterns and render persons already displaced more vulnerable to trafficking.



The last article, by Steve Thorpe, presents an innovative new project – the Mixed Migration Hub (Mhub), which was developed within the framework of the North Africa Mixed Migration Task Force. MHub is an information and research network that collects, analyses and disseminates relevant data across the MENA region.



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