Human Trafficking in [Morocco] [other countries]Street Children in [Morocco Child Prostitution in [Morocco] [other countries] |
Prevalence, Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children The |
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in ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** Shelters
for Morocco's street children are a drop in an ocean 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 *** UNICEF - The Big Picture U.S. Dept
of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - A 2001 study found that street children in Bur of Democracy,
Human Rights & Labor - Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005 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) - 2003 [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. Shelters
for Morocco's street children are a drop in an ocean 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. Nobody's constituency http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/3A499E89-0381-4CD6-A719-CD00E9D94CA5.htm 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 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 A non-governmental organisation in Morocco says substance abuse among
children has reached alarming levels.
The Baiti association says 98% of children
living on the streets in Morocco are now addicted to sniffing glue and the
number is growing. They shine shoes,
beg from passers-by or even sell their bodies in return for the $3 they need
to buy a tube of glue. According to a
government survey, more than 5,000 children are living on the streets of
Casablanca alone. Almost all of them
are glue addicts. Information
About Street Children - Morocco [DOC] 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. 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. Vii.
Morocco's Failure To Provide Care And Protection As night empties the streets
around Morocco's main port of Casablanca, groups of young boys sleep on
fishing nets, on cartons in the wholesale market or in doorways. And in what children's association
president Najat M'jid
calls Morocco's...growing sex trade, six or seven young girls share small
rooms in the teeming city, waiting for ``clients.'' Suspicious, afraid and often deeply
ashamed, the children aged between 12 and 18 come from families with
difficult backgrounds -- usually divorced parents with many children. ``About 1,000 children live in the
streets of Casablanca alone,'' she said. Morocco
Has 10,000 To 14,000 Street Children Street children in Morocco's
Experience In Handling Street Children Issue Expounded In Cairo Ismael, just 14 years old, emerged from
behind the breakwater in the Spanish In Morocco, CIRCLE partner DARNA is working with one of the most difficult target
groups among child labourers: street children. They
have no stable homes, support themselves by begging, petty trade, or crime,
and often sniff glue. Many have never gone to school or participated in any
organized program with adult leadership. Despite the many challenges related
to this target group, DARNA has been able to help
many youths with its exceptional pedagogy and integrated approaches. With
CIRCLE, they are building a proactive and positive community of
street-boys-turned-farm-students. Their strategy includes providing basic education,
useful job skills, and psychosocial rehabilitation. All material used herein
reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC §
107 for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use |
Human Trafficking in [Morocco] [other countries]Street Children in [Morocco Child Prostitution in [Morocco] [other countries]