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When she arrived in Tangier, at the beginning of 2021, a car came to pick her up at the station. They took her to a house, without ever giving her the address. They confiscated her passport, her belongings and put her to work. Cleaning, cooking, ironing, childcare… Everything, she should do everything. She wouldn’t leave the house. She would have no day off or holidays. She would start her days at 6 a.m. and could only go to bed when her bosses were asleep.
After three months, Awa* ran away. “I no longer had the strength”, testifies this 33-year-old woman, originally from Côte d’Ivoire, who has since been living in Casablanca. His migration project, built on beautiful promises, has turned into a nightmare. A year and a half after her arrival in Morocco, she decided to “return to the country”. She has taken steps with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in order to benefit from its assisted voluntary return programme.
Awa’s story is tragic, but not singular. Many African women from the west of the continent, mostly Ivorians and Senegalese, settle in Morocco to become domestic workers. The majority of these women arrived in the Cherifian kingdom through trafficking circuits. They also sometimes pass through parallel networks, family or friends, operating by word of mouth. Some, again, come by themselves. For lack of proper papers, they are often exploited, sometimes mistreated, without being able to defend themselves. A “modern slavery” denounced by many human rights associations in Morocco.
Although it is impossible to know their number – since their work is mainly carried out informally – everything suggests that the “market” for foreign servants is booming. On social networks, multiple advertisements, relayed by so-called “agencies”, offer the services of African or Asian women, although this “intermediation activity” is prohibited by Moroccan law.
On the telephone, these matchmakers offer “catalogs” profiles available. The “Sub-Saharan” are recommended for their “flexibility”. ” You understand, as they are not at home, they are more committed, more docile, one of them tells us. They are reliable too. And then they speak good French. » Another interlocutor indicates that they are ” less expensive ” than Moroccans and Asians.
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