Methodology

This report is based on research conducted between April 2012 and August 2012, including two field visits to Morocco in April and May and in July of 2012.  We conducted interviews in Casablanca, Rabat, Marrakech, and the Imintanoute region of Chichaoua province, speaking with former child domestic workers, government officials, lawyers, teachers, and representatives of NGOs, UNICEF, and the International Labor Organization.

We interviewed 20 former child domestic workers who ranged in age from 12 to 25 at the time of interview, and who began working as domestic workers between the ages of 8 and 15.  All but 4 of the 20 were still under the age of 18 at the time of the interview. They had worked in a total of 35 households for periods ranging from 1 week to 2.5 years.  All but four had been employed as a domestic worker during some period between 2005 and 2012, the period of our inquiry. Those whose employment was prior to 2005 (with a few exceptions, as noted) are not quoted in this report.

We interviewed seven former child domestic workers in Casablanca, Morocco’s largest city, where many child domestic workers find employment, and the remainder in the Imintanoute region, a poor, rural area southwest of Marrakech which is known as a sending area for child domestic workers. Interviewees were identified with the assistance of NGOs that provide programs and services for former child domestic workers. Interviews were conducted in private in Arabic or Tamazight (Berber), with interpretation provided by a Human Rights Watch research assistant. Interviews were given on a voluntary basis, and no incentives were offered or provided to persons interviewed. We have changed the names of all former child domestic workers quoted in this report in order to protect their privacy.

Former child domestic workers who have left domestic work and are in NGO programs may be more likely to have suffered abuse or exploitation and therefore may not be considered representative of the general population of child domestic workers. Thus, the interviews in this report are not necessarily typical of all child domestic workers in Morocco, but their experiences are illustrative of the challenges and abuses that many child domestic workers may face.

During our field mission, Human Rights Watch met with the minister of employment and professional training; the minister of solidarity, women, family, and social development; and representatives of the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Higher Education, and the General Council of the government. We also met with staff of the Casablanca Child Protection Unit (CPU), which operates under the direction of the Ministry of Solidarity, Women, Family, and Social Development, and the independent National Human Rights Council. Following our field mission, we requested additional information through the Interministerial Delegation for Human Rights (a governmental body set up in 2011 to elaborate and implement government policy on human rights) regarding existing government initiatives to address child domestic labor and enforcement of relevant existing laws. Information received from the Interministerial Delegation as of June 15, 2012, is reflected in the body of the report and reprinted in the appendix. We also reviewed available secondary sources, including available surveys, government reports, NGO reports, news stories in the media, and other relevant materials.

Despite the cooperation noted above, authorities impeded our work by informing us at the beginning of 2012 that they would not allow our Morocco-based research assistant, Brahim Elansari, to attend any meeting between Human Rights Watch and government officials.  Despite Human Rights Watch’s protests that it alone should decide who is to represent it, authorities have refused to lift its ban on Mr. Elansari’s participation in official meetings and events.

In this report, “child” and “children” are used to refer to anyone under the age of 18, consistent with usage under international law.

This is Human Rights Watch’s second report on child domestic labor in Morocco, and our 20th report documenting abuses against domestic workers, including both children and migrant domestic workers, who are often more vulnerable to abuse and exploitation compared to other domestic workers. We have documented abuses against child domestic workers in El Salvador, Guatemala, Guinea, Indonesia, Morocco, and Togo, and abuses against migrant domestic workers in Bahrain, Cambodia, Indonesia, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States.

This is also our 43rd report on child labor. In addition to the work noted above relating to child domestic labor, we have investigated bonded child labor in India and Pakistan, the failure to protect child farmworkers in the United States, child labor in Egypt’s cotton fields, child labor in artisanal gold mining in Mali, the exploitation of migrant child tobacco workers in Kazakhstan, the use of child labor in Ecuador’s banana sector, the use of child labor in sugarcane cultivation in El Salvador, child trafficking in Togo, the economic exploitation of children as a consequence of the genocide in Rwanda, and the forced or compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict—one of the worst forms of child labor—in Angola, Burma, Burundi, Chad, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, India, Liberia, Nepal, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, and Uganda.