Rabat – The General Commission for Prison and Reintegration Administration (DGAPR) announced the recent launch of a national project wherein prisoners contribute to the production of face masks.
The project is part of the national campaign to fight against COVID-19, DGAPR said in a statement.
Since May 5, 100 prisoners in 21 prison institutions across Morocco have produced 20,000 face masks per day.
The statement explained that the production process takes place in accordance with recommended health standards.
The DGAPR also explained that the project meets all the requirements, including applicable monitoring, to ensure the safety of the staff involved in the initiative.
In addition to its goal to help mitigate the COVID-19 crisis, the initiative also aims to help prisoners and empower them to integrate into society.
The operation also hopes to see prisoners helping the national campaign, led by government sectors and private companies, to fight the spread of the pandemic.
The DGAPR reassured that the initiative also seeks to enable prisoners to manage the period of detention during the nationwide lockdown with a motivational approach, undertaking activities based on their field of interest in exchange for encouragement and compensation.
The Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Industry support the project, the DGAPR announced.
The initiative is in line with Morocco’s national project seeking to encourage local production of face masks.
Morocco made the wearing of masks in public mandatory on April 7. The country then launched a flagship project to produce masks locally to meet citizens’ needs.
Morocco made the masks available at MAD 0.80 ($0.08).
As of May 12, the number of facemasks that the country produces per day reached 10 million.
Morocco has also become a prominent exporter of face masks to Europe amid the shortage of materials in those countries, recently considered the epicenter of COVID-19.
On May 18, Head of Government Saad Eddine El Othmani expressed satisfaction with local production of face masks.
“We should be proud of the national project and creativity,” he said.
Morocco extended its state of emergency for the third time, until June 10, as part of its preventive measures to contain the spread of COVID-19.
