Prevalence,
Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children In the first decade of the 21st Century gvnet.com/streetchildren/Morocco.htm
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CAUTION: The following links
and accompanying text have been culled from the web to illuminate the
situation in HOW TO USE THIS WEBPAGE Students If you are looking for
material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on this
page and others to see which aspect(s) of street life are of particular
interest to you. You might be
interested in exploring how children got there, how they survive, and how
some manage to leave the street.
Perhaps your paper could focus on how some street children abuse the
public and how they are abused by the public … and how they abuse each
other. Would you like to write about
market children? homeless children? Sexual and labor exploitation? begging? violence? addiction? hunger? neglect? etc. There is a lot to the subject of Street
Children. Scan other countries as well
as this one. Draw comparisons between
activity in adjacent countries and/or regions. Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources
that are available on-line. Teachers Check out some of
the Resources
for Teachers attached to this website. ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** Shelters for
Morocco's street children are a drop in an ocean Imane Belhaj,
Magharebia, www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/reportage/2008/03/14/reportage-01 [accessed 22 June
2011] [accessed 25
December 2016] Othmane left his
home and school at the age of 14 to live on the street. He no longer wanted
to see his mother fight the daily battle to get bread for his five little
siblings, struggle to lease a shantytown house and pay for his school
expenses. "The street is not more merciful," Othmane says
"This is a lie; but at least she will not have to think about my daily
living. In the meantime, I may be able to help her." Othmane carries
bags of vegetables and other purchases for customers at a nearby market. In
this way, he earns a few dirhams a day, enough to bring a little money back
home when he visits once a week and still be able to buy the cheap narcotics
which help him endure his suffering. Othmane is part of
the growing number of street children in Morocco. These are the homeless and
marginalized youths without identity or family. The sidewalks are their
shelters and the bakeries' doorsteps are their pillows. In Casablanca,
these children's main "residences" are alleys in the old city, the
port, the train station and the fruits and vegetables wholesale market. The
port provides them with an opportunity to emigrate illegally. The wholesale
market gives them the chance to work as porters and make money to buy drugs.
At the train station, they can earn a bit from helping passengers or by
begging for handouts from tourists. ***
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 - A 2001 study found that street children in Human Rights Reports
» 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61695.htm [accessed 27 March
2020] CHILDREN
- A
May 2004 report from the Secretariat for Literacy and Non‑Formal
Education estimated that as many as 1.5 million children between the ages of
9 to 15 were not in school. Over 140 thousand were enrolled in government remedial
and vocational education programs. The Ministry of
National Education stated its goal was to reduce the student dropout rate
from the current 40 percent to 20 percent. In the past the dropout rate had
been as high as 70 percent. The ministry attributed the reduction in the rate
was a result of boarding schools established in small towns and rural areas.
Students were able to attend these schools, spend the night, and receive
meals. In 2003 the
government signed an accord with 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] [52] The Committee
notes the efforts undertaken by the State party, notably through the National
Five-Year Plan for Social and Economic Development (2000-2004), but remains
concerned about the large number of children who do not enjoy their right to
an adequate standard of living, including children belonging to poor
families, children living in remote rural areas and street children. [58] The Committee is
deeply concerned at the situation of Moroccan children who are deported,
notably in the cities of [64] The Committee
welcomes the study on street children undertaken by the State party (report,
para. 318), but expresses its concern at their increasing number and at
the lack of specific policies and programs to address this situation and to
provide these children with adequate assistance. Haunting images of
5,000 African charity trip This is www.thisishullandeastriding.co.uk/Haunting-images-5-000-African-charity-trip/story-11960533-detail/story.html [accessed 22 June
2011] www.hulldailymail.co.uk/haunting-images-5-000-african-charity-trip/story-11960533-detail/story.html [accessed 25
December 2016] After boarding an
overnight ferry from King George Dock to Holland, they drove down through
Europe before boarding another boat to Morocco. Justine said: “I
knew the people would be poor, but I wasn’t prepared for what I was about to
see. In every village and town we went through, from Morocco to Senegal,
there were hoards of street children chasing our vehicles. “They had no money,
little food, few clothes and had lived in real poverty their whole lives, yet
they were so incredibly happy. Just having the chance to play football with
us made them smile and it was amazing to see.” Nobody's
constituency Ahmed El Amraoui, Al
Jazeera, Mdiq, northern english.aljazeera.net/focus/moroccoelections2007/2007/09/2008525184652704902.html [accessed 22 June
2011] PRECARIOUS EXISTENCE - At first, Abdel
Fatah was reluctant to revisit his unhappy childhood or unlock the mysteries
of street life, but the promise of a hot meal and money made him open
up. "I went to school for only
one year. I quit because I did not like it, neither did my mother. My father
abandoned us when I was a child. My mother was cruel and used to blame me and
my other two brothers for her misfortune. I left home and started to work in
construction when I was 11 years old. But the man I used to work for was very
abusive," Abdel Fatah said.
"After working for a few months, I found myself on the street
with nothing to eat, no clothes and nowhere to sleep. But I found other
children out there who later became my friends. Now I am happy and
free." ADDICTIONS - Abdel Fatah started to smoke at the age of 11, and a
year later his new friends pushed him to sniff glue. He sleeps in different
places every night, mostly in mosques, public gardens and in bus
stations. His mother never bothered to
inquire about him, he said. Moroccan civil
society and government try to help children at risk Sarah Touahri,
Magharebia, www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/reportage/2007/02/02/reportage-01 [accessed 22 June
2011] [accessed 25
December 2016] In the backstreets
of Rabat, children comb the streets and turn up at mosques and bakeries
looking for charitable souls. Mohcine Zalafe, 10, is one of them. Over the
past year he has become used to approaching passers-by next to the bus
station in Rabat, looking sickly and pale-faced, and dressed in filthy
clothes. "I can collect between 80 and 120 Dirhams a day," he says
proudly. "The older you get, the
less people want to give you money," says his friend, 16-year-old Samir
Bouchtaoui. The two boys are hardly
ever separated. Mohcine’s mission is to collect as much money as possible and
Samir undertakes to "protect" him from the other street children. Child glue sniffing
rises in Morocco Pascale Harter, BBC
News, news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4113441.stm [accessed 22 June
2011] A non-governmental
organisation in Information About
Street Children - This report is taken
from “A Civil Society Forum for North Africa and the Middle East on Promoting
and Protecting the Rights of Street Children”, 3-6 March 2004, At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 22 June
2011] The structure of
the Moroccan family has changed due to increasing poverty. Parents are unable to fulfill their
traditional role as providers, and children increasingly become the main
sources of revenue in large families.
With his traditional authority weakened, the father turns to violence
as an expression of his status and physical punishment becomes more common. Families also disintegrate and break up due
to the divorce or disappearance of the father (leaving the mother and
children alone); re-marriage of one of the parents; alcoholism and drug
abuse; and maternal prostitution.
Single mothers remain the outcasts of society, and are unable to
garner support from eroding communitarian solidarity. Street Life BBC World Service,
1st July 2000 www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/people/highlights/streetlife.shtml [accessed 21
February 2011] A
motley crew of abandoned
children, runaway child maids, and the rejects of broken homes. Children as
young as six live a life on the run from police hunting for children to dump
in borstals run by the Ministry of Youth and Sports. Human Rights Watch
Report, NOWHERE TO TURN: State Abuses of Unaccompanied Migrant Children by www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/2002/spain-morocco/spnmorc0402-06.htm#P1018_181685 [accessed 22 June
2011] Child prostitution
and the spread of AIDS Kandela, Lancet, 9
Dec 2000 www.popline.org/docs/154139 [access date
unavailable] www.popline.org/node/172519 [accessed 25
December 2016] In Morocco, child prostitution
is a large and growing problem and the government is being forced to address
the situation. Although legislation is in place to punish people convicted of
sexual abuse of children, the rate of prostitution is still high. Joint
research studies by the government and the UN have revealed that up to 48% of
street children have been sexually abused, often in return for lodging and
food. In a study conducted in 1995 by the Moroccan AIDS Service Organization,
it was found that most prostitutes were not aware of the risks of AIDS and
did not know how to negotiate safer sex with clients. It also indicated that
many prostitutes had precarious living conditions due to economic dependence
and had many sexual partners. Visitors and tourists play a significant part
in this trade. Tourism continues to provide clients for child prostitutes,
many of whom are uneducated about AIDS. Wafa Bennani,
Reuters, pangaea.org/street_children/africa/morocco.htm [accessed 22 June
2011] As night empties
the streets around ``About 1,000
children live in the streets of Casablanca alone,'' she said. streetchildrennews.wordpress.com/1999/12/29/morocco-has-10000-to-14000-street-children/ [accessed 18 January
2017] Street children in www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/990920/1999092048.html [Last access date
unavailable] Perilous lives of
runaways Europe does not want - Street Children Who Flee Morocco Face
Beatings And Abuse In Spanish Enclave Giles Tremlett, The
Guardian, www.guardian.co.uk/world/2001/jun/15/gilestremlett/print [accessed 22 June
2011] Ismael, just 14
years old, emerged from behind the breakwater in the Spanish Spotlight on DARNA,
Community-based
Innovations to Reduce Child Labor through circle.winrock.org/news/ma-DARNA.cfm [accessed 22 June
2011] In 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
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