IV. Moroccan Government Efforts to Address Child Domestic Labor

Education

Education in Morocco is free and compulsory until age 15. The 2011 Constitution stipulates that basic education is the right of a child and an obligation of the family and state. [114] Moroccan law further specifies that all children should be registered for school at age six, and that parents and guardians are responsible to ensure school attendance until age fifteen. Those that do not comply may be subject to a fine of 120-800 dirhams (US$13-90). [115]

Although the compulsory schooling law is poorly enforced, the Moroccan government has made significant efforts to increase school enrollment for Moroccan children. Increasing school enrollment and retention not only helps fulfill Morocco’s obligation to ensure children’s right to education, it can also help reduce child domestic labor, as girls who remain in school are less likely to enter domestic work.

According to government statistics cited by the World Bank, in 2002 only 62 percent of Moroccan children (56 percent of girls and 67 percent of boys) finished primary school.[116] By 2010, that figure had risen to an estimated 85 percent. Gender gaps also narrowed, with 82 percent of girls and 87 percent of boys completing primary school in 2010. Between 2007 and 2010, the number of primary school-aged children who were out of school decreased from 380,029 to 207,749.[117]

In 2008, the government launched the “Tayssir” program to provide financial help to poor families, on the condition that they send their children to school. The goal of the program was to increase school enrollment by alleviating schooling costs and financial pressures on families to send their children to work. Monthly cash allowances were given to families of children who missed no more than four days of school per month, ranging from 60 dirhams ($7) per month for children in the first or second year of primary school to 140 dirhams ($16) per month for those in middle school.[118]

The Tayssir program began with 88,000 students from 47,000 families in poor, rural areas as beneficiaries. By the 2011-2012 school year, it had expanded to included 690,000 students from 406,000 families.[119] According to the government, the program decreased absenteeism by 60 percent and the annual dropout rate by 68 percent. It also increased the return of students who had previously dropped out of school by 245 percent.[120]

An independent assessment of the Tayssir program found that 3 percent of participating children were employed outside their own family at the beginning of the program in 2008. By 2010, rates of employment for this group declined by one-third.[121] Researchers evaluating the program cautioned, however, that there was little way to determine specifically whether the cash allowance program reduced the number the number of girls who migrated from rural areas to urban areas to work as domestic workers. “Household surveys will tell us if girls left the home, but they don’t tell us why or what they are doing,” said Florencia Devoto of the Poverty Action Lab.[122]

In addition to the Tayssir program, the government has undertaken other initiatives designed to increase school attendance. For example, according to information provided by the government, it provides schoolbags and other necessary supplies to the majority of students at primary level. Between 2008-2009 and 2011-2012, the number of school children receiving the schoolbags increased from 1,273,846 to 4,079,808.[123]

The government says it provided cafeteria meals to 1,257,348 students at primary and secondary schools in 2011-2012, an increase of 32 percent from 2008-2009. During the same period, boarding school admissions increased by 55 percent (from 76,924 to 119,868), providing schooling opportunities for children who do not have accessible schools near their homes.[124]

The government also significantly increased school transportation services in rural areas, where children often have to travel long distances to reach school. In 2008-2009, the Ministry of Education provided transport to 2,200 schools, it reports; by 2011-2012, it had expanded transportation services to 30,995 schools.[125]

Overall, the government reported that the net enrollment rate in primary schooling increased from 90.4 percent in 2007-2008 to 96.4 percent in 2010-2011, and that during that period, the dropout rate at primary level decreased from 5.4 percent to 3.1 percent for boys and from 6 percent to 3.8 percent for girls.[126]

Enforcement of the Prohibition on Child Labor

As noted earlier, the Moroccan Labor Code prohibits child labor under the age of 15. Employing children under that age is punishable by fines ranging from 25,000 to 30,000 dirhams ($2,811 to $3,373), which can be doubled in the case of repeated offenses. In June 2012, the Minister of Solidarity, Women, Family, and Social Development, Bassima Hakkaoui, publicly called for increases in the penalties against those employing children of school age.[127]

With the support of the ILO’s International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labor (IPEC) and UNICEF, the Ministry of Employment and Vocational Training has established a specialized Child Labor Unit to address child labor and has identified child labor focal points at each of 43 labor inspectorates across the country. The ILO has provided specialized training in child labor and child domestic labor to these focal points and individual labor inspectors to help them identify, protect, and withdraw children involved in exploitative labor.[128] In 2011, labor inspectors carried out 383 child labor inspections of commercial enterprises. They identified 119 children under the age of 15 working, but recorded only 9 offenses. In contrast, they carried out 515 child labor inspections in 2010, recording 45 fines and offenses. [129]

Enforcement of the law has been extremely weak regarding child domestic labor, however. A significant impediment to enforcement is that Morocco has no provisions to allow labor inspectors to access private homes. Information provided to Human Rights Watch by the government indicated that no fines were imposed or offenses recorded against employers of child domestic workers in either 2010 or 2011.[130] The ILO office in Morocco also indicated that it was not aware of any penalties that had been imposed against employers of child domestic workers under the Labor Code.[131]

The government notes that the draft domestic workers bill allows labor inspectors to receive complaints by domestic workers and write up reports on the matter.[132] However, it is not clear what action would be taken from the reports, and there is no system in place to educate domestic workers generally, or child domestic workers specifically, on how they can register a complaint with labor inspectors. The Minister of Employment and Professional Training acknowledged that this needs to be developed and told Human Rights Watch, “We need to work with NGOs and local officials to set up an alert system to be able to monitor the situation, but we need to be realistic and not think the situation will disappear as soon as the law is adopted.”[133] Other ministry officials indicated that monitoring mechanisms could be established through an implementing decree.[134]

Assistance

Under the government’s National Plan for Childhood (2006-2015), five Child Protection Units have been established in the cities of Casablanca, Marakesh, Tangiers, Meknès, and Essaouira. The purpose of the units is to provide social services and referrals to vulnerable children, including those who are victims of violence or mistreatment. According to the government, the units have provided assistance in 1,188 cases.[135]

In practice, however, the Child Protection Units provide assistance to very few child domestic workers. The director of the Casablanca unit informed Human Rights Watch that in 2010, the unit handled 342 cases, and in 2011, 456 cases.  However, in those two years, she estimated that the unit had assisted fewer than ten child domestic workers. The biggest problem, she said, was the inaccessibility of children employed in domestic work. [136]

The Casablanca unit has become much more professional and increased its case load significantly since 2010. [137] Other units have been much less active, however. The Marrakech unit has only handled 81 cases since it was established (compared to Casablanca’s 456) and when Human Rights Watch asked the director of a local NGO working with vulnerable children about the unit, he replied, “In my view, they don’t do anything.”[138] Both he and others, including Child Protection Unit staff, said that the units have been hampered by the government’s failure to formalize the operation of the units and provide adequate staff and resources.[139]

None of the girls interviewed by Human Rights Watch had any knowledge of the Child Protection Units, where they were located, or what assistance they might provide. As shown by the findings of this report, many child domestic workers are isolated in their employer’s home and have little contact with the outside world. Without a system to inform child domestic workers about the existence of the Child Protection Units or other available services, or a way to make those units accessible to children, it is unlikely that child domestic workers will receive any meaningful aid.

Meriem Kamal, of the NGO INSAF, said, “The CPUs [Child Protection Units] are not the right place to host and receive child domestic workers. We need specialized centers for girls, not for street children, but for girls who have been sent by their families to work for other families where they have experienced abuse.”[140] She also noted that the units were not operating in the whole country.

The minister of solidarity, women, family, and social development, Bassima Hakkaoui, informed Human Rights Watch that the ministry was developing a new system of observation centers, intended to facilitate monitoring and reporting by any individual with knowledge of abuses against children, including child domestic workers, as well as to provide shelter to children in need.[141] She said the observation centers would have the potential to “reduce drastically the ‘petites bonnes’ phenomenon.”[142]

The government told Human Rights Watch in June 2012 that it was preparing the second phase of its national plan on childhood, in coordination with the ministerial Commission for the Child, which is composed of 17 ministerial departments. The plan, according to the government, will give particular attention to children in difficult circumstances, including child domestic workers.[143] The Ministry of Solidarity, Women, Family, and Social Development has developed a pilot program in Casablanca to coordinate services for child victims of violence, and told Human Rights Watch that it intends to expand the program to Marakesh, Agadir, Tangiers, Salé, and Oujda.[144]

The government also acknowledges ongoing difficulties in ensuring protection for children and implementing existing law. In its 2012 report to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, it stated, “Child rights-promoting policies are being developed but a number of factors are undermining them. The different actors do not coordinate sufficiently and there is a lack of staff specialized in child care. The social workers, experts, labor inspectors and occupational doctors are limited in number and do not have sufficient equipment in order to accomplish their mission efficiently”.[145]

Public Education, Training, and Support to NGOs

The government carried out national public education campaigns on child domestic labor in 2007 and 2010, with the support and cooperation of ILO-IPEC and UNICEF, and organized training sessions for local actors on the issue in 2008 and 2009. Interviews with NGOs and others indicate that the public education campaigns have helped to raise awareness regarding child domestic labor in Morocco, though many families are still unaware of the legal prohibition on the employment of children under age 15. INSAF, for example, found in its 2010 survey that 76 percent of sending families were unaware of laws prohibiting employment before age 15, and that 68 percent were unaware of laws requiring the education of children until age 15.[146]

The Ministry of Solidarity, Women, Family, and Social Development provides financial assistance to NGOs working in the field of child protection, including those working to prevent child domestic labor and support children who have been removed from domestic work. In 2009, the Ministry allocated 7.1 million dirhams (approximately $808,000) for this purpose. It increased the amount to 17.4 million dirhams (approximately $1.98 million) for both 2010 and 2011.[147]

The Ministry of Employment and Vocational Training provides approximately 1.5 million dirhams (approximately $170,000) per year, to support projects by approximately 20 nongovernmental organizations to eliminate child labor.[148]

Criminal Prosecution

Employers who physically abuse child domestic workers should be subject to prosecution under Morocco’s Criminal Code. For example, individuals who willfully injure a child or deprive a child of food or care can be imprisoned for one to three years, and adults who have custody of a child may be subject to two to five years’ imprisonment.[149] In mid-2012, the Ministry of Justice said it was drafting revisions to the penal code to strengthen sanctions against individuals responsible for trafficking of women and children.[150]

In 2012, the criminal chamber of the Court of Appeal sentenced a 31-year-old woman to 10 years in prison for beating a 10-year-old child domestic worker, leading to the child’s death, according to news reports and local NGOs.[151] The girl’s employer “loaned” the girl to her daughter and the daughter’s husband while on vacation in July 2011. A week later, the girl, identified as Khadija, was found dead, her body covered with bruises. The girl’s father initially accepted money from the perpetrator and declined to press charges, but concerned NGOs, including Bayti and INSAF, pursued legal action. The woman was charged and convicted with assault resulting in death.

Khadija’s death prompted protests by local NGOs and significant coverage by the Moroccan media. Local NGOs said the publicity around the case helped to raise public awareness regarding violence against child domestic workers and the possibility of criminal prosecution for such abuse.

Prosecutions of employers who abuse child domestic workers are very rare, however. A government official told Human Rights Watch that in 2011 only 16 individuals in Morocco were prosecuted for violence or mistreatment against children, and did not indicate whether any of the cases involved violence against child domestic workers.[152] INSAF informed Human Rights Watch of one other case in 2010 of an employer sentenced to one year in prison for physical abuse of a child domestic worker, but said the sentence was later reduced to six months.[153]

NGOs working with child domestic workers acknowledge that it is difficult to pursue legal action against employers in the absence of strong medical evidence of physical abuse or a formal complaint. According to ILO staff and local NGOs, some cases of abuse are resolved informally between the employer and the child’s family, for example, through a financial payment, and never become public.[154] A representative of INSAF said, “In many cases, the parents and the girls are pressured by the employer and intermediaries to accept financial compensation because of their poor financial situation. In a very few cases, the courts may impose a sentence, but it happens rarely and after a long trial.”[155]

The Ministry of Justice has undertaken a number of initiatives to strengthen legal assistance to women and children who are victims of violence, including establishing protection cells in all court tribunals to facilitate access to legal protection for women and children, developing information materials about child rights and the services provided by the tribunals, and developing a guidebook on the judicial management of cases of abuse for magistrates, judges, social workers, and others. The Ministry has also established regional and local commissions, coordinated by the Attorney General, to ensure cooperation between government ministries and NGOs working to provide child protection for victims of violence and mistreatment.[156]

Although these measures may be helpful for cases that enter the judicial system, Human Rights Watch’s interviews suggest that the vast majority of child domestic workers are not aware of the legal or child protection services that might be available to them, or even where they might be able to find a local police station.