At the far southern edge of Morocco, in the Apostolic Prefecture of the Sahara, the Society of Jesus has entered a new chapter in its service to the local Church and to people on the move. Since September 2024, the Blessed Luc Dochier Jesuit community has relocated from Nador to Laâyoune, responding to the dramatic shift in migration routes across the region. What was once a ministry rooted along the northern Mediterranean border has now moved to the Atlantic coast, where the “Canary route” has become the deadliest passage toward Europe.
This transition marks more than a physical relocation: it represents the Jesuits’ ongoing commitment to accompany, protect, and advocate for some of the most vulnerable people in Morocco today. In Laâyoune—a crossroads of mobility, hope, and profound human fragility—the Jesuits seek to be a presence of listening, compassion, and life where indifference and loss too often prevail.
From Nador to Laâyoune: A Mission Shaped by Human Mobility
For more than a decade, Nador was a key place of pastoral and social accompaniment for communities in mobility attempting to enter Europe through the Spanish enclave of Melilla. Through the collaboration of the Near East and Maghreb Province (PRO) and the Province of Spain, the Jesuits helped establish and strengthen a broad network of support and advocacy:
the Diocesan Delegation for Migration,
the Baraka Vocational Training Centre,
and multiple ecclesial initiatives carried out with religious congregations, lay partners, and institutions such as Entreculturas–Alboan, the Jesuit Missions Secretariat, the Jesuit Migrant Service, the ECCA Foundation, Caritas, Manos Unidas, and the universities Comillas and Loyola.
This shared mission helped weave a network of cooperation in a territory marked by precariousness but also by a profound hunger for dignity.
A New Migration Landscape in Morocco
Over recent years, however, the geography of human mobility in Morocco has changed dramatically. The progressive closure of Mediterranean routes and increased border controls have pushed migration flows toward the Atlantic.
Since 2023, the “Canary route” has become the main point of entry into Western Europe—and the deadliest. According to data from Caminando Fronteras, 10,457 people died in 2024 while attempting to reach Spain, including 9,757 on the Atlantic route alone, coming from 28 different countries.
These tragic numbers give special weight to the Jesuit mission in Laâyoune: to be a sign of compassion, presence, and hope in a place where death and invisibility too often dominate the narrative.
The new Jesuit coetus in Laâyoune is missioned under the Saint Ignatius community of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, strengthening ties across both shores of the Atlantic migration corridor. The Apostolic Prefect of Laâyoune, Fr. Mario León Dorado OMI, welcomed the Jesuit presence as a sign of communion and shared service within the local Church.
This partnership reflects a common pastoral desire: to walk alongside people in mobility, defend their dignity, and support the Church’s presence in a fragile and highly sensitive territory.
The mission in Laâyoune continues the same inspiration that animated the work in Nador: accompany, serve, and defend the lives of people on the move, in close coordination with local Caritas, civil authorities, and other actors on the ground.
The Jesuit contribution focuses on:
Welcoming and hospitality, especially for those in vulnerable situations.
Training and education, offering tools for personal and professional empowerment.
Awareness-raising, promoting a culture of dignity and respect for migrants.
Psychosocial and health accompaniment, essential in a context marked by trauma and instability.
Rooted in this frontier land, the Jesuits seek to be a sign of the Gospel—of life, hospitality, and hope—at the crossroads of human mobility, interreligious dialogue, and universal fraternity.
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