Torture in [Morocco] [other countries]Human Trafficking in [Morocco Street Children in [Morocco] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Morocco] [other countries] |
Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery In the early years of the 21st Century gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Morocco.htm
Morocco is a source,
destination, and transit country for men, women, and children trafficked for
the purpose of forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation. Children are
trafficked within the country from rural areas to urban centers to work as
maids or laborers, or for exploitation in the sex trade. Men, women, and
children are trafficked to European and Middle Eastern countries as illegal
migrants who become exploited for forced labor and prostitution. Young Moroccan
girls from rural areas are recruited to work as child maids in cities, but
often face restrictions on movement, non-payment of wages, threats, and
physical or sexual abuse. Moroccan boys experience involuntary servitude as
apprentices in the artisan and construction industries and in mechanic shops.
- U.S. State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report, June, 2009 [full country report] |
|
||
|
CAUTION: The following
links have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in ***
FEATURED ARTICLES *** Arabic News, Regional-Morocco, Politics,
1/13/2004 www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/040113/2004011323.html [accessed 21 February 2011] In an interview
published Saturday by French magazine "Le Figaro Madame," Belqadi said "since the beginning of his reign, HM
King Mohammed VI voiced support for women's rights. Today, she went on, His
Majesty has launched a deep-rooted reform. And it takes courage to deal with
such a hot issue in Muslim countries." Portrait Mahi Binebine Katrin Schneider,
Qantara.de, 24.06.2003 www.qantara.de/webcom/show_article.php/_c-304/_nr-16/_p-1/i.html [accessed 21 February 2011] JOURNEY INTO DEATH - No one knows
exactly how many people attempt the dangerous illegal crossing of the Straits
of Gibraltar each year, though their number probably runs into the hundreds
of thousands. Conservative estimates suggest that hundreds of them perish in
the attempt. Though most of these individuals will appear only as statistics,
or in brief news reports of bodies washed up on the beaches of Spain, Mahi Binebine’s novel gives
them a human face - and a history. Street Life BBC World Service, 1st July 2000 www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/people/highlights/streetlife.shtml [accessed 21 February 2011] SLAVE TRADE - The neglect of ***
ARCHIVES *** The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/morocco.htm [accessed 21 February 2011] INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - In urban areas, girls can be found working as
domestic servants, often in situations of unregulated “adoptive
servitude.” In these situations, girls
from rural areas are trafficked, “sold” by their parents, and “adopted” by
wealthy urban families to work in their homes. Girls and boys working as domestic servants
and street vendors are increasingly targets of child sex tourism,
particularly in the cities of Marrakech and Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy,
Human Rights, and Labor, March 8, 2006 www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61695.htm [accessed 21 February 2011] TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS
– Trafficking of women for prostitution was prevalent, and prostitution was a
problem particularly in cities with large numbers of tourists, as well as
near towns with large military installations. Prostitution of trafficked
minors was a particular problem in the Human Rights
Reports » 2004 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2004/41728.htm [accessed 21 February 2011] CHILDREN - The practice of
adoptive servitude, in which urban families employ young rural girls and use
them as domestic servants in their homes, was widespread. Credible reports of
physical and psychological abuse in such circumstances were widespread. Some
orphanages have been charged as complicit in the practice. More often,
parents of rural girls contracted their daughters to wealthy urban families
and collected the salaries for their work as maids. Adoptive servitude was
accepted socially, was unregulated by the Government, and only in recent
years began to attract public criticism. The problem remained prevalent,
although the National Observatory of Children's Rights has conducted, since
2000, a human rights awareness campaign regarding the plight of child maids. The legal minimum
age of employment was 15 years. The number of children working illegally as
domestic servants was high: 45 percent of household employees were between
the ages of 10 and 12 and 26 percent were under the age of 10, according to a
2001 joint study by the Moroccan League for the Protection of Children and
UNICEF. The report denounced the poor treatment a number of the children
received, such as being forced to work all day with no breaks. Many children
worked either as domestic servants, artisan apprentices, or in some other
capacity that kept them from attending school. TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS
– Women were trafficked abroad, and internal trafficking was also a problem,
particularly of women for sexual exploitation or of young girls for domestic
service. The country was a
transit point for trafficking and alien smuggling to Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 6
June 2003 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/morocco2003.html [accessed 21 February 2011] [60] While noting
the efforts of the State party to prevent and combat child labour
(ratification of ILO Conventions Nos. 138 and 182, ILO/IPEC program to fight
child labour), the Committee is concerned that the incidence of economic
exploitation remains widespread in the agricultural and handicraft sectors,
including metalworking and jewellery-, carpet- and
mosaic‑making. The Committee is
also deeply concerned at the situation of domestic servants (petites bonnes), mostly girls, who are subjected to harsh working
conditions and abuse. Freedom House Country Report - Political Rights: 5 Civil Liberties: 4 Status: Partly Free 2009 Edition www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2009/morocco [accessed 27 June 2012] Human Rights
Overview Human Rights Watch www.hrw.org/en/middle-eastn-africa/morocco/western-sahara [accessed 21 February 2011] Arabic News, Regional-Morocco, Politics,
1/13/2004 www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/040113/2004011323.html [accessed 21 February 2011] In an interview published
Saturday by French magazine "Le Figaro Madame," Belqadi
said "since the beginning of his reign, HM King Mohammed VI voiced
support for women's rights. Today, she went on, His Majesty has launched a
deep-rooted reform. And it takes courage to deal with such a hot issue in
Muslim countries." Summary of midterm reviews and major
evaluations of country programmes - Middle East and
UN Economic and Social Council, 19 July
2004 At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 8 September 2011] 14. 15. According to
the study, several key factors were associated with child sexual
exploitation: poverty, single-parent households, abuse and maltreatment in
early childhood, peer pressure, and absence of sex education. Clients are
both nationals and foreigners, with an increasing number of sex tourists
coming from the West and from the Gulf region. More than 70 per cent of the
children interviewed had been informed about health risks but knowledge about
HIV/AIDS and prevention was limited. 16. Even if they
condemn sexual exploitation, families sometimes do not question their
children about their activities, especially if the families are poor and the
children bring money to the household. Empowering Girls and Young Women at Risk Source:
International Human Rights Law Group [accessed 21 February 2011] Empowering Girls
and Young Women at Risk in The International
Human Rights Law Group are pleased to announce the publication of
"Empowering Girls and Young Women at Risk in Morocco: A Resource Book on
Sexual Abuse, Forced Labor, and Trafficking in Persons in Prostitution and
Domestic Service", recently produced by the Morocco Field Office of the
International Human Rights Law Group in collaboration with a Working Group of
13 local NGOs from diverse sites across Morocco. Portrait Mahi Binebine Katrin Schneider,
Qantara.de, 24.06.2003 www.qantara.de/webcom/show_article.php/_c-304/_nr-16/_p-1/i.html [accessed 21 February 2011] JOURNEY INTO DEATH - No one knows
exactly how many people attempt the dangerous illegal crossing of the Straits
of Gibraltar each year, though their number probably runs into the hundreds
of thousands. Conservative estimates suggest that hundreds of them perish in
the attempt. Though most of these individuals will appear only as statistics,
or in brief news reports of bodies washed up on the beaches of Spain, Mahi Binebine’s novel gives
them a human face - and a history. Traffickers hold thousands of children,
women in bondage UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
IRIN, www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=47205 [accessed 21 February 2011] Traffickers who specialise in taking young women to Europe, where they
are held in debt bondage and forced into prostitution, have established
networks all over West Africa, according to police and NGO sources. From bases scattered all over the region
the women are taken on the tortuous journey across the Sahara Desert to
destinations in Morocco, Tunisia,
Algeria and Libya, from where attempts are made to smuggle them to Europe. ECPAT International At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 8 September 2011] ECPAT
International, in cooperation with UNICEF, organised
a Regional Consultation on North Africa at the Hotel IBIS, in New report discusses child abuse in Morocco Imane Belhaj
for Magharebia in http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2007/07/05/feature-02 [accessed 21 February 2011] The report explores
the origins of sexual exploitation. Most stem from blatant violations of
children’s socio-economic rights—the right to a respectable standard of
living, the right to education, the right not to work, the right to play— but
also from a lack of sexual education and awareness at schools. Poverty
appears to be the decisive factor pushing children into prostitution
alongside factors such as the break-up of the family unit, mistreatment
within the family and the absence of a national action plan delineating a
strategy for preventing violence against youth. Dying to Leave Thirteen, www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/episodes/dying-to-leave/human-trafficking-worldwide/morocco/1453/ [accessed 21 February 2011] VICTIMS - According to the
U.S. State Department, some Moroccans seeking work in Europe and the Internal
trafficking of children from rural areas to cities for domestic servitude is
widespread. Parents of rural children contract their daughters as child maids
to wealthier urban families. According to a 2001 UNICEF-funded study there
are more than 13,000 girls younger than 15 working as child maids in NOWHERE TO TURN: State Abuses of
Unaccompanied Migrant Children by Human Rights Watch
Reports, Vol.14, No. 4 (D), May 2002 www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/2002/spain-morocco/index.htm#TopOfPage [accessed 21 February 2011] II. CONTEXT THE PRESSURES ON
CHILDREN TO MIGRATE
- Children in Morocco are exposed to a variety of factors that encourage
migration. Many unaccompanied migrant children we interviewed told us that
they saw no future for themselves in Morocco, a stark response to Morocco's
demographic and economic reality. Almost one fifth of the total population
lives in poverty, up from 13 percent in 1991, and the World Bank classifies
almost half the population as "economically vulnerable." Forty-four
percent of the poor are children under fifteen. The majority of those living
in poverty are concentrated in rural areas, where many of the children we interviewed
had lived. Official unemployment rates at the end of 2001 stood at 13
percent, with unemployment rates for youth aged fifteen to twenty-four at 20
percent. Legislation mandating free, compulsory education from ages six to
fifteen and World Bank-financed educational reforms have increased school
attendance, but primary enrollment rates remain low compared to other
lower-middle-income countries. Despite significant rural/urban and gender
disparities in access to education, survey data show poverty to be the
"single most important obstacle for non-enrollment of school-age
children in both urban and rural areas. Rights Of The Child - Report of the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child
prostitution and child pornography, Ms. Ofelia Calcetas-Santos UN Economic and Social Council, Commission
on Human Rights, Fifty-seventh session, 7 November 2000 At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 8 September 2011] 13. Once they
arrive in their employer’s home, they are extremely vulnerable to
exploitation. The girl is usually far away from home, and certainly cannot go
back to her parents at night. Often she has no opportunity to meet people
outside of her new household and consequently has nowhere to go and no one to
turn to for help. She is unlikely to see much of her family for several
years, and what little money she earns is usually given straight to her
parents. 15. In most cases,
the girls’ work involved cleaning and general housework, looking after the
children and doing the cooking for the whole family. Over 25 per cent of the
girls questioned confirmed that their work involved all three tasks.
Seventy-two per cent of the girls began their working day before 7.00 and 65
per cent did not finish until after 23.00; 81 per cent declared that they did
not get a single day off in the week and 34 per cent claimed that they had to
continue to work even when they were sick. In over 80 per cent of the cases,
the child’s salary, which was usually less than 300 dirham per month (10
dirham = US$ 1), was sent directly to their parents. Twenty-five per
cent claimed that they were never allowed to be visited by their parents; 43
per cent of parents reported that they visited their child once a month and
36 per cent reported that they visited the child in order to collect her
salary. Street Life BBC World Service, 1st July 2000 www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/people/highlights/streetlife.shtml [accessed 21 February 2011] SLAVE TRADE - The neglect of All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT
ARTICLES. Cite this webpage as: Patt,
Prof. Martin, "Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery - |
|||
Torture in [Morocco] [other countries]Human Trafficking in [Morocco Street Children in [Morocco] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Morocco] [other countries]