Morocco, a country of transit for thousands of migrant women and children
27 Jul 2012 Trafficking, abuse and exploitationMorocco
For many years, Morocco has been not only a country of emigration. Every year, thousands of migrants from Sub-Saharan Africa take to the Moroccan roads to travel to Europe. Originally places of passage, the kingdom’s larger cities have gradually become places of residence for migrants from West Africa, who are sometimes stuck for years in front of the ever-higher barriers of the “European fortress”. With the ‘Tamkine Migrants’ project, Terre des hommes brings support to Morocco to help face up to the problems connected to migration, to take the migrants’ rights into account and to protect them from exploitation and exclusion.
In Morocco, migrants and refugees, in particular women and children, live in conditions of extreme vulnerability. Frequently excluded by the Moroccans, they are deprived of their economic and social rights, whether or not they have official refugee status. Stigmatism of the migrants, very prominent in the media, contributes to heighten the Moroccan people’s suspicions, together with discrimination and the risks of being exposed to acts of racism.
In Rabat, Tangiers and Oujda, the main routes taken by the Sub-Saharan migrants towards Europe, Terre des hommes and its Moroccan partners GADEM (specialised in legal aid) and Oum El Banine (specialised in helping mothers with children) want to promote the inclusion of migrants in the country, by educating public services and civil society and making them aware of the situation. The Tdh delegation has also mobilised a whole network of associations (in a national platform called ‘Migrant Protection’) working for migrant rights, to as to improve their access to health, educational and legal services. That is to say, to the inherent rights stated by various international conventions ratified by Morocco.
To guarantee their health and that of the Moroccans
A large number of Sub-Saharan women and young girls arrive in Morocco ill or pregnant (wished-for pregnancies or the ‘price of travel’), and others become pregnant whilst staying in Morocco. Most of them are alone, without family or other support to help them in their pregnancy or the birth, and some of them have HIV or AIDS. However, their irregular administrative status makes them afraid to go to public health services for fear of being sent back to the frontier or even imprisoned. Despite the considerable goodwill of the Ministry of Health, conscious of the danger represented by a population without medical monitoring, practitioners and health professionals sometimes resist treating the migrants, especially as these people do not have money to pay for their treatment or, as a rule, have no papers.
In order to contribute the migrants’ improved access to these services, Terre des hommes has opened a health-care centre for expectant migrant women and those with babies, in a quarter of Rabat where a large proportion of the migrant population congregate. The medical staff of this centre gives information and advice to these women and young girls on sex health, family planning, child nutrition and hygiene. They also have a chance to talk, together or with a social worker, about the traumas they have experienced, whether in their country of origin or on the migration route itself. These talks also enable identification of other problems the women and their families have, and to help them live in Morocco. Since its opening in July 2011, the centre has received 367 people (128 children and 239 adults) and 52 births were accompanied. Social workers also helped within families and the public schools so that the migrant children could have access to education. However, the migrants often think their children will not have either the time or interest to become integrated in the school system before leaving Morocco for Europe. Unfortunately, more and more migrant families have been living in the country for years now, and today they regret not having allowed their children to go to school. On the other hand, some schools still refuse to register these children, who they consider to be in an irregular situation, although national law recognizes their status as legal. Tdh and its partners inform and apprise migrant families, as well as the staff of public schools, of the importance of formal schooling, intercultural exchanges and the right to education.
Guaranteeing the same rights for everyone
Even today, despite the adoption of a law in 2003 to protect migrant persons (Law 02-03 relating to the admission and stay of foreigners), migrants still encounter problems even to exercise their rights. This law and the procedures to be followed are hardly known in institutions, in relief associations and by the migrants themselves.
Tdh and its partners make governmental parties aware of the rights of foreigners, with the aim of adapting the legal framework and legal practice to national and international laws. Lawyers and magistrates are apprised of and given training on the practical application of the rights of this specific group, and to how to give legal support to any migrant who requests it – an indispensible element of protection of the rights of migrant women and children, especially in the gravest situations of violations of human rights.
The ‘Tamkine-Migrants’ project is co-financed by the European Union and implemented by the Terre des hommes Foundation, Terre des hommes – Spain, and the GADEM association (Anti-racist group for the support and defense of foreigners and migrants) and Oum El Banine (‘Mother of all children’).
