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 - 2000 to 2010 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] |
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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/template.cfm?page=363&year=2009&country=7666 [accessed 21 February 2011] 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
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Cite this webpage as: Patt, Prof. Martin, "Human Trafficking
& Modern-day Slavery - |
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Human Trafficking in [Morocco Street Children in [Morocco] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Morocco] [other countries]