The government increased efforts to prevent human trafficking. The national inter-ministerial anti-trafficking committee, which was administered by MOJ and included two representatives from civil society, coordinated the government’s efforts to combat trafficking. The government continued to implement its 2007 NAP, which included coordination across relevant ministries, and began drafting a 2023-2030 national strategy and an accompanying 2023-2026 implementation plan in coordination with international organizations; the government fully approved the new strategy and implementation plan in March 2023 and it was pending implementation at the end of the reporting period. In 2022, the anti-trafficking committee partnered with an international organization to develop a comprehensive database to track law enforcement actions, judicial proceedings, trafficking trends, protection measures, and other information on the government’s efforts; the database was pending full operationalization at the end of the reporting period. The government conducted public awareness campaigns, at times in coordination with international organizations.
The government reportedly continued to implement Law No. 19.12, adopted in October 2018, which provided protections to foreign domestic workers including requiring valid work contracts that meet national labor standards for the granting of a work visa. Law 19.12 also banned the use of intermediaries to negotiate the recruitment of domestic workers on behalf of the intended employer and recruitment agencies in order to reduce vulnerability to fraudulent recruitment. The government continued to operate a hotline through the National Observatory for the Rights of the Child for the public to report abuse and crimes against children, but the government did not report whether the hotline received any reports of potential child trafficking crimes. The Ministry of Economic Inclusion, Small Business, Employment, and Skills continued to conduct child labor inspections in the formal economy across the country; labor inspectors removed 522 children from hazardous working conditions, including potential trafficking victims, between January 2022 and February 2023. However, the government reported it remained concerned about child labor violations in the informal sector, including potential forced child labor crimes. The government did not report efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts or child sex tourism. The government provided anti-trafficking training to its diplomatic personnel. Moroccan peacekeeping forces received anti-trafficking training and operated under a “no tolerance” standard for troops involved in UN peacekeeping missions. Although not explicitly reported as trafficking, an international organization reported receiving one sexual exploitation allegation with potential trafficking indicators against Moroccan peacekeepers deployed to the UN peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic (CAR) in 2022; three such allegations in 2021, with two concerning peacekeepers in the CAR and one concerning peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC); and three in 2020 (two concerning peacekeepers in the DRC and one concerning peacekeepers in the CAR). The government reported it had jailed one perpetrator after a 2020 allegation in the DRC was substantiated and closed the 2022 allegation after it was found to be unsubstantiated. Investigations into the other five allegations remain ongoing.
from 2023 Trafficking in Persons Report – U.S. Department of State
2023 Trafficking in Persons Report – United States Department of State
