Child

Articles

• Morocco’s Single Mothers Face Legal and Social Stigma
  14 February, by Prince

  In Morocco, single mothers continue to be victims of prejudice and discrimination. As proof, Moroccan law does not allow these women to request DNA tests to establish the paternity of their child.
  "In Morocco, everyone looks at you strangely when they know you are a single mother," says Zineb (pseudonym), a 19-year-old single mother, to the newspaper El Pais. The young woman, who gave birth a little over a month ago, lives with her baby in the shelter of the National Institute of Women’s (…)

• Search Intensifies for Missing 13-Year-Old in French Alps
  2 April, by Prince

  Missing for more than a week, Amjad Jacquemin, a 13-year-old teenager, remains untraceable. His family is desperately searching for him. The national police have issued a missing person alert for the young man of Moroccan origin.
  This 13-year-old teenager, a resident of the Les Perce-Neige educational center in Gap, has not given any sign of life since March 23, the date on which he is said to have disappeared, according to the missing person alert issued by the police of the (…)

• Morocco Lowers Compulsory School Age to 2 Years Old
  7 April, by Prince

  The Moroccan government approved on Thursday draft law No. 59.21 on school education, presented by Mohamed Saïd Barada, the Minister of National Education, Preschool and Sports. It makes schooling compulsory for children from the age of 2.
  Article 8 of the text obliges any person responsible for the care of a child (father, mother, legal guardian, directors and managers of social protection institutions) to enroll the child in an educational institution from the required age and to ensure (…)

• 11-Year-Old Girl Killed in Antwerp Drug Gang Shooting, Police Investigate
  11 January 2023, by Prince

  A 11-year-old girl was killed on Monday in Antwerp in a shooting that targeted her home in Merksem. A member of a Moroccan family involved in drug trafficking, Ferdaous was a collateral victim of a settling of scores between drug traffickers.
  "The 11-year-old girl was seriously injured. She was taken to the hospital, but unfortunately she died shortly afterwards," said Willem Migom, spokesperson for the Antwerp police, on Tuesday. Initially, the agents thought the young girl had succumbed (…)

• Mother Slams Belgian Justice System After 13-Year-Old Daughter’s Murder
  12 January 2023, by Prince

  Nesrine, 34, mother of little Malak, 13, buried on Tuesday in the multi-denominational cemetery of Evere in Belgium, is angry with the Belgian justice system which did not know how to protect her daughter or take the appropriate measures against her murderer, a repeat offender well known to the judicial services.
  Little Malak had temporarily lived with her father, in Liège, after running away and accusing her mother, who lives in Anderlecht, of mistreating her. "My daughter just wanted to (…)

• 11-Year-Old Victim of Antwerp Shooting to be Buried in Morocco as Community Mourns
  12 January 2023, by Prince

  The body of Ferdaous, the 11-year-old girl killed on Monday in a shootout between drug dealers in Merksem, Belgium, will be repatriated to Morocco on Friday where she will be buried. On Wednesday, hundreds of people, friends, family members and neighbors attended the prayer organized in her memory at the Great Mosque of Kiel.
  The El Fath En Nassr mosque had suddenly become too small to contain the some 1,200 people who came to attend the prayer organized in memory of little Ferdaous, (…)

• Urgent Search Underway for Missing 14-Year-Old Belgian Girl Nisrine Marabet
  2 May 2023, by Said

  Child Focus, the Belgian organization dedicated to child protection, has issued a search notice following the worrying disappearance of Nisrine Marabet, a 14-year-old girl. Nisrine was last seen on Sunday, April 30 in Sint-Pieters-Leeuw (Leeuw-Saint-Pierre), and since then she remains untraceable.
  The girl is described as measuring 170 centimeters, having a slender build, black hair and dark brown eyes. At the time of her disappearance, she was wearing a black jacket and a black scarf. (…)

• Belgian Driver Sentenced in Fatal Hit-and-Run of 11-Year-Old Cyclist
  26 July 2023, by Prince

  The Maaseik police court has just sentenced a woman to three months in prison with probation and eight months of driving ban for hitting Bilal Ben Omar, an 11-year-old Moroccan, on May 19, 2021 in Maasmechelen. The boy died a few days later in the hospital.
  The woman, from Kinrooi, hit Bilal who was cycling with her Citroën on the roundabout of the Oude Baan and the Koning Albertlaan in Maasmechelen. The forty-year-old dragged the boy, trapped under her car, for a few more

• Moroccan Man Kills Wife in Front of Children in Almería, Spain
  8 August 2023, by Prince

  A Moroccan man slit his wife’s throat, also of Moroccan origin, on Monday in the Pescadería neighborhood of Almería, in front of their children aged 9 and 8. The minors called on neighbors for help to alert the police.
  The man, aged 32, is said to have cut his wife’s throat with a 10-centimeter kitchen knife in front of their 9 and 8-year-old children. The victim, aged 27, was a nanny for a 5-month-old baby, sources from the Almería provincial police station told EFE, specifying that the (…)

• Moroccan Father Arrested for Abandoning Children in Spain During 40-Day Morocco Trip
  22 January 2023, by Prince

  The police arrested a 43-year-old Moroccan for having abandoned his minor children, aged 16 and 13, in the family home in Granada (southern Spain) for more than 40 days, to go on vacation to Morocco.
  The defendant, with a clean criminal record, left for Morocco, leaving the two minors with a little milk and a modest sum of money. During his 40 days of absence, he did not contact them, reports Ok Diario. The Moroccan was arrested upon his return from Morocco, after agents from the Unit for (…)