Ayub Mabrook, an athlete moroccan 21 years old, triple kick boxing champion, drowned in a boat in November along with half a hundred people while trying to cross illegally to Spain. His corpse was swept away in a wave until the beach of Los Caños de Meca and was identified by a friend thanks to a photograph published the next day by the Newspaper of Cádiz. Mabrook lived in Salé, a city of 900,000 inhabitants adjacent to Rabat, and had gone 25 hours prior to Kenitra. The boat ran aground on a reef just 150 metres from the coast. Saved 22 people and the sea was returning corpses for several days until they add up to 24.
The migration of moroccan in Europe has grown at an unprecedented pace the last two years. Even citizens with a future theoretically promising, as the athlete Mabrook or the Law student Hayat Belkacem, who lost his life in September in a boat after being shot by a Royal Navy moroccan, risk their lives given the lack of opportunities. The arrival of people with moroccan nationality who crossed illegally to Spain, across the route of the western Mediterranean, multiplied by more than six in 2017 compared with the previous year, up to a total of 4.704 border crossings, according to data from Frontex (agency for the control of external borders of the EU). That record has been beaten already exceeded in the first ten months of this year, with 7.120 irregular entries of moroccans.
Frontex pointed to two possible reasons: the wave of protests that broke out in the Rif since November of 2016 and the employment of vessels of larger capacity that will start their journey even from Kenitra. The most dramatic increase occurred just after the moroccan police arrested Nasser Zafzafi, leader of the protests in the Rif, and himself be imprisoned as a other 400 rifeños, from may 28, 2017.
Khalid Zeruali, director of Migration and Border Surveillance, with the rank of governor in the Ministry of the Interior, pointed out to this newspaper in October that, in the first 10 months of this year, Morocco has intercepted 70,000 “candidates for irregular migration”, of which “between 12,000 and 13,000” were moroccans.
There are those who believe that the cause of that desire to leave is due to youth unemployment. The own Mohamed VI lamented in a speech last August: “it is Not reasonable that out of every four young persons, one is unemployed, despite the level of economic development, usually, known Morocco. (…) Many young people, especially with a higher qualification, scientific and technical, arise emigrate abroad”.
The ultras, Gruppo, Payment, of the football club Raja Of Casablanca, spread a song in September entitled I Am oppressed in my own country, that in just over a month was seen over a million times on YouTube. “We have been drugged with the hashish from Ketama / (…) Have you stolen the wealth of our country / you Have destroyed a whole generation”, they chanted.
A european economist who requested anonymity says: “The growth of the country is not able to absorb labour youth leaving the labour market”. Unemployment was in 2008 at 9.6%, and now continues in the 10%. However, among young people 15 to 24 years, the unemployment rate climbed from 18.3% to 27.5% in the same period. In large cities, this percentage reaches 45%. In this context, the Royal Palace promoted in August, and by decree the establishment of the mandatory military service, suspended since 2006, men and women between the ages of 19 and 25 years. The measure, which could come into force next year, has attracted a lot of criticism in the social networks.
in Addition, a survey published by the daily moroccan L’economiste on November 14, revealed that six out of every ten moroccans between 15 and 24 years are willing to leave the country as an opportunity. Another poll by the same newspaper revealed the day before that three out of every four computer they are prepared to emigrate.
A moroccan artist, who prefers not to give his name, points to his reasons for leaving: “I have the same feeling of suffocation morality that was in the nineties with Hassan II, when I was small. It is true that people now don’t die of hunger. In the souks you throw tomatoes at the end of the day. But this is not famine, but lack of horizons. Here are only manifest on the street which the State wants to, through their trade unions. If you’re Kaçak İddaa not one of them will put you in jail, as has been demonstrated in al-hoceima or in the mining town of Yerada”.
Slogans for migration
The historian, sociologist and economist Mohammed Ennaji believes that the desire to because of economic reasons always existed. “But now it is as if young people had met in front of a wall. Do not see hope, they say that they want to escape from ‘hell’. In Morocco, there is a patriotic sentiment very strong. And, however, it is the first time that you hear slogans in favour of emigration”.
Ennaji refers to the demonstrations that occurred in September in Tetouan after the death of Hayat Belkacem, the 19-year-old shot by the Royal Navy of Morocco when he tried to emigrate to Spain in a motorboat. Young of the rock The Busters are showed in black in the city, expressed their desire to migrate, and some carried the flags of Spain. Soufian The Nguad, the activist of 27 years who called for the demonstration, was sentenced in October to two years in prison.
The survey of L’economiste revealed, precisely, that the women are the most determined to leave. Five out of ten they would go out as soon as I get the chance, as against 31% of men. The researcher and sociologist Jean Zaganiaris, professor of the School of Governance and Economics of Rabat, points out that this is the data that most surprised you in the survey. But he warns that there is a big distance between the desire to depart and move to action. On the possible causes of why young people want to leave, Zaganiaris points out: “Risk their lives because they feel that there is something that prevents them from moving forward. Are you aware that there are judgments of social that are already issued. When you’ve grown up in a suburb of a large city in Morocco where you know that 90% of adults do not work or are very poorly paid, you feel the desire to try their luck in another part.”
why are the women who most want to migrate
Stephanie Willman, founder in Rabat of the NGOS Mobilising For Rights Associates, is not surprised that five out of ten moroccan women confess that they would leave the country as soon as I get the chance, as against 31% of men. “The question we should be asking is why some women want to stay in a country that does not comply with its social contract. Here women are not free to enjoyar of your love life. Relationships outside of marriage are prohibited. Suffer constant harassment in the streets. And despite being better educated than many men, and that there is a lot of investment to the training of women, after suffer more from unemployment than men.”
Saida Kouzi, founder also of the same organization, adds: “women are educated with the same rights that a child up to 10 or 12 years. Then he says to them: ‘You’re not going to be able to do the same thing that the men’. And the reality is that it does not do the same thing, but much more than them. Today, the majority of households are supported with the work of women. That, in addition, take care of their husbands and their children.”
Kouzi explains that gender inequality is well documented in the month of Ramadan. “The woman goes out to work early in the morning, while the man is allowed these days arriving late to work, if you have one. If not, it is sleeping at home. The woman arrives home after work and have to put in to prepare the meal of the ftur [breaking the fast]. After eating, the man goes to the café and the woman is scrubbing and preparing the food for the next day.”
