African Union leaders create migration body to coordinate national policies

African states have created a body to help coordinate national policies on migration, Morocco announced at the African Union (AU) summit on Monday. AU leaders agreed to set up the African Observatory for Migration and Development (OAMD), based in the Moroccan capital of Rabat, Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita said in Nouakchott, the Mauritanian capital. The scheme, suggested by Morocco, comes amid a fresh crisis within the EU over an influx of migrants taking the trip across the Mediterranean. Bourita rejected an EU proposal to allow migrants rescued in international waters to request asylum in the EU from so-called “regional disembarkation platforms” located outside of Europe, AFP reported.