Migrants in Morocco beset by lice and hunger

As Morocco prepares to host the signing of a landmark global migration agreement, hundreds of migrants are languishing in a Casablanca camp rife with hunger, misery, lice and filth.

These sub-saharan Africans who dream of going to Europe embody the problems world dignitaries are trying to address with the UN’S first migration compact, being completed at a conference in Marrakech today and tomorrow.

Rising numbers of migrants live in the makeshift camp that sprung up on a football pitch near a busy bus station, where they sleep under tents or in shacks built from plastic and wood.

Scant food, a lack of heating and no sanitation are the main worries at the Oulad Ziane camp, as lice and respiratory infections are becoming endemic.

The 34-page UN Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration is to be formally approved in Marrakech. However, the United States and several European countries have said they won’t sign on.