The Government of Morocco does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so. The government demonstrated overall increasing efforts compared with the previous reporting period; therefore Morocco remained on Tier 2. These efforts included increasing prosecutions, implementing the NRM, approving and publishing a victim identification guide, establishing a trafficking-specific hotline, and coordinating with NGOs and international organizations to begin establishing specialized trafficking shelters. However, the government did not meet the minimum standards in several key areas. Specialized shelter and services for trafficking victims remained insufficient, and the government did not report providing financial or in-kind support to civil society organizations providing victim services. Due to uneven application of new identification and referral procedures, the government inconsistently referred identified victims to shelter and services. Despite high trafficking risks for migrants and refugees in Morocco, authorities rarely identified or provided services to foreign trafficking victims. Lack of consistent proactive screening and identification measures continued to leave certain populations, such as undocumented migrants, vulnerable to authorities inappropriately penalizing them solely for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked, including immigration violations. The national anti-trafficking commission lacked adequate resources and personnel to effectively coordinate government efforts to combat trafficking.
As reported over the past five years, human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Morocco, and traffickers exploit Moroccan victims abroad. Traffickers, including parents and other intermediaries, exploit Moroccan children in Morocco for forced labor, domestic work, begging, and sex trafficking. Some Moroccan boys endure forced labor while employed as apprentices in the artisanal, textile, and construction industries and in mechanic shops. Although the incidence of child domestic workers has reportedly decreased in Morocco since 2005, girls are recruited from rural areas for work in domestic service in cities, and some become forced labor victims. NGOs and other observers anecdotally reported a significant number of girls work as domestic help in Moroccan households, but it is difficult to determine the scale of this occurrence because of authorities’ inability to access this population. Drug traffickers reportedly compel children to participate in the production and transportation of drugs in Morocco. Some family members and other intermediaries exploit Moroccan women in sex trafficking. Observers reported severe drought in rural areas increased vulnerability of Moroccans of lower socio-economic means to exploitation by sex and labor traffickers as they sought other income sources. Some foreign nationals, primarily from Europe and the Middle East, engage in extraterritorial commercial child sexual exploitation and abuse in major Moroccan cities. Following the September 2023 Al Haouz earthquake, traffickers allegedly exploited children affected by the earthquake in sex and labor trafficking.
Documented and undocumented foreign migrants, especially women and children, are highly vulnerable to forced labor and sex trafficking in Morocco and as they transit through Morocco to reach Europe. Traffickers exploit undocumented migrants who voluntarily use smugglers to enter Morocco. In 2022, the government tightened border restrictions with Europe which observers reported increased the vulnerability of undocumented migrants in Morocco to exploitation and trafficking. Sub-Saharan and Moroccan undocumented migrants clandestinely crossing from Morocco to the Spanish enclaves of Melilla and Ceuta or the Canary Islands and further into Europe are at risk of trafficking in Morocco and Europe. For example, traffickers exploit some female migrants while seeking assistance at “safe houses” in Morocco, which usually are run by individuals of their own nationality. Some female undocumented migrants, primarily from sub-Saharan Africa as well as a small but growing number from South Asia, are exploited in sex trafficking and forced labor in Morocco. Criminal networks operating in Oujda on the Algerian border and in northern coastal cities, such as Nador, exploit undocumented migrant women in sex trafficking and forced begging; networks in Oujda also reportedly exploit children of undocumented migrants in forced begging. Some female undocumented migrants, particularly Nigerians, who transit Oujda are exploited in sex trafficking once they reach Europe. International organizations, local NGOs, and migrants report women and unaccompanied children are highly vulnerable to sex trafficking and forced labor in Morocco; the victims are typically the same nationality as the traffickers. Some women from the Philippines, Indonesia, and francophone sub-Saharan Africa are recruited for employment as domestic workers in Morocco, but upon arrival, employers force them into domestic service through non-payment of wages, withholding of passports, and physical abuse. Media reported young Nigerian men and women were fraudulently recruited for soccer or other sports opportunities in Morocco before being exploited in sex or labor trafficking.
Traffickers exploit Moroccan adults and children in forced labor and sex trafficking, primarily in Europe and the Middle East, particularly in the Gulf states. Traffickers force Moroccan women into commercial sex abroad where they experience indicators of trafficking, including restrictions on movement, threats, and emotional and physical abuse. As in past years, media continued reporting Moroccan workers in Spain’s agricultural sector were subjected to forced labor and, at times, sexual abuse.
from 2024 Trafficking in Persons Report – U.S. Department of State
2024 Trafficking in Persons Report – United States Department of State
