The Female Face of Migration in Morocco

[This text has been written by Sara Arias, Country Coordinator (Morocco) at ISGlobal, and Aïda Kheireddine, Fek Tayri]

Due to its geographical location, Morocco has in recent years become a transit and host country for migrants from sub-Saharan Africa and certain Middle Eastern countries affected by conflicts, including Syria and Yemen. In 2020, the United Nations estimated that Morocco was host to around 102,400 migrants (representing 0.3% of the country’s population), 48.5% of whom were women. 

Current statistics indicate that migration is increasingly taking on a female face. Women today are even more mobile than in the past and therefore find themselves in difficult situations due to the intersection of the oppression they suffer as women and the oppression facing foreigners in a foreign land. Moreover, there is a relative lack of gender-sensitivity in standards and legislation relating to migration.

Women today are even more mobile than in the past and therefore find themselves in difficult situations due to the intersection of the oppression they suffer as women and the oppression facing foreigners in a foreign land.

Migratory flows in this region are heterogeneous and complex and it falls to the Moroccan government to manage the situation, which presents numerous challenges in terms of health policies and other public policies. The Moroccan Ministry of Health has implemented policies aimed at improving the health of migrant women. The Strategic National Plan for Health and Immigration 2021-2025 seeks to improve access to health care services for migrants in vulnerable situations, respecting their human rights and safeguarding conditions of equality and equity. Likewise, a new National Strategy for Sexual and Reproductive Health 2021-2030 has been drawn up in collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to promote the right to sexual and reproductive health in Morocco. 

Another problem affecting women’s health is gender violence. Morocco, like all other countries in the world, is affected by the scourge of violence against women, who make up more than half of the country’s population. The country ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women in 1993 and has been committed for decades to improving its legislation and public policies to address violence against women. The 103-13 Act on Combatting Gender-Based Violence, which came into force in 2018, provides a legal framework that enables women to protect themselves to some extent from violence. Under the provisions of that Act, the authorities created specialised women’s units in hospitals, courthouses and police stations, where social workers record women’s complaints and help them to navigate the procedures required to guarantee their right to protection.

In theory, that law and the legal remedies it provides apply to all women regardless of their legal status. There are, nonetheless, women who have no access to such protection or have difficulties accessing it, such as women living in isolated areas and transexual women, for example.

Raising Awareness Among Migrant Women in Situations of Vulnerability About Gender-Based Violence and Sexual and Reproductive Health

In the framework of the Mediterranean Health Observatory, ISGlobal, in collaboration with the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) and Alianza por la Solidaridad, has organised workshops designed to raise awareness among migrant women about gender-based violence and sexual and reproductive health to improve their knowledge of these topics and to give them the tools and knowledge they need to access health care and the protection of the law.

During the months of May, June and September 2022, 150 women from various countries, including Guinea Conakry, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Nigeria, were invited to participate in workshops held in Rabat and led by Aïda Kheireddine, an expert in gender and migration, and Maroua Khouya, a midwife with extensive knowledge of the specific sexual and reproductive health problems facing women in Morocco. 

A high proportion of the participants talked about the aggressions they face on a daily basis, particularly sexist and sexual harassment from men, who sometimes resort to blackmail, threatening to report their lack of residence papers to the police. When asked the question “Who do you turn to for protection against violence?” many of the women in the workshops answered “God is our only protector”. This response is an indication of the very limited, in some cases almost non-existent, protection to which they have recourse owing to their poor access to legal remedies, a situation that further exacerbates their insecure and precarious situation in Morocco.

A high proportion of the participants talked about the aggressions they face on a daily basis, particularly sexist and sexual harassment from men, who sometimes resort to blackmail, threatening to report their lack of residence papers to the police.

In the course of the workshops, the facilitators described some of the existing strategies for combatting gender-based violence and proposed some solutions for improving the women’s access to justice. These included providing a translation service for migrant women, eliminating regulations preventing people without residence permits from reporting a crime or making a complaint, and providing training for administrative staff on the rights of migrants and best practices on gender issues. They also informed the women about the existence of extrajudicial mechanisms offered by institutions such as Morocco’ National Human Rights Council and the delegations of the Ombudsman, both of which offer the possibility of mediation and a remedy to individuals whose rights have been violated, once all judicial remedies have been exhausted. 

Migrant women’s isolation makes them particularly vulnerable, which is why, at the end of the workshops, they were asked the following question: “Is there a support network between migrant women and the Moroccan population?” The responses evidence the key role played by solidarity in alleviating trauma but there are, unfortunately, still many obstacles, such as racism and distrust, that impede this support and make it difficult to forge links between migrant women and the local population.

There are, unfortunately, still many obstacles, such as racism and distrust, that impede this support and make it difficult to forge links between migrant women and the local population.

The solutions proposed for strengthening such links include the creation of intercultural community spaces managed by migrant women for migrant women, which can offer a time and place for sharing experiences and facilitating exchanges with Moroccan women and the local population in general. Such a community space could be a real tool for solidarity, empowerment and intercommunity relationships.