Rabat- Morocco’s Ministry in Charge of Moroccans Living Abroad (MRE) has appointed attorneys to defend Moroccan seasonal workers who have reported they were sexually assaulted in Spain.
The ministry will fund a number of Spanish and Moroccan lawyers to bring justice to the women who have complained of sexual assault by their employers and supervisors in Spain’s Huelva province.
The ministry also stated that it had received several Moroccan NGOs, who pledged full support for the rape victims, and said its decision to entrust the case to the Spanish lawyers was in the framework of the legal cooperation between Morocco and Spain.
Previously, Morocco’s Ministry of Employment had denied claims that Moroccan women working on Spanish farms were sexually assaulted.
The ministry maintained that “no specific case of abuse or violation against Moroccan workers was found,” after it had sent a Moroccan-Spanish delegation to inquire about the women’s conditions on the Spanish farms.
In January, Spain agreed to hire 10,400 Moroccan agricultural workers to pick strawberries and other berries for the April to June harvest season following a meeting between 18 representatives of agricultural firms and officials from the General Directorate for Migration.
Several news outlets, including US-based online media company Buzzfeed News, Spain’s El Mundo, and El Pais have reported on the stories of Moroccan seasonal workers who said they were raped and insulted in Heluva.
The MRE’s decision came after several Spanish and Moroccan women in Huelva protested the sexual assault against these women.
The protesters rallied in a march of solidarity on Sunday, June 17, holding banners which read “Work Without Sexual Slavery.”
