Families Demand Action as Moroccan Workers Vanish in Libya

"My sister went to Libya in 2015 to work at the home of a Libyan lady, before a dispute arose between them, pushing my sister to go work for another lady through a Moroccan woman," Zohra, a Moroccan resident in the province of El Hajeb, tells Hespress. Her sister Faïza has been missing in Libya for eight years. "Since 2016, we have had no news of her, and the contacts we have tried with her first employer and with the lady who had found her another job opportunity have not made it possible to determine her location or reveal her fate. [...] The family has lost all contact with Faïza and has since been living in the expectation and hope of her safe return to the country," she adds.

Worried, the family has sent two letters to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccans Residing Abroad. No response. Zohra calls on the ministry in charge of Moroccans residing abroad and the various parties concerned by this issue to act in order to reveal the fate of her missing sister. The wish of Faïza’s father is to "see his daughter alive before he dies." "The family has lost, since the disappearance of Faïza, the taste for holidays and celebrations which are only complete within the framework of the family reunion," he adds.

"The issue of the disappeared in general in Libya, and in particular of the Moroccan community, is an old and new subject, because since the time of the previous regime, we have heard and seen announcements posted on the notice board of the Consulate General of the Kingdom of Morocco in Tripoli bearing the names of missing persons," said Mohamed, a Moroccan residing in Libya and executive director of the Libyan-Moroccan Friendship Association, stating that he has received several notifications and complaints concerning cases of Moroccans inside the Libyan territory "whose news has been cut off from their families who are asking to know their fate." He will add: "Since the February 17 Revolution, this issue has been of increasing concern to those concerned, especially with the increase in illegal immigration and armed militias, making it difficult to search for a missing person, although the Ministry of Interior of the Government of National Unity has formed a committee to follow up these files".

"The consulates of all the countries represented in Tripoli follow the files of their nationals detained in the rehabilitation and rehabilitation institutions, but the Consulate of the Kingdom of Morocco, in its current situation, does not consider this file a priority, and we have not heard of any visit on its part to these institutions and centers," confirmed the civil society actor. Faced with this situation, he calls on the Moroccan authorities and their Libyan counterparts to "pay more attention to the file of Moroccans missing in Libya and to intensify efforts to reveal their fate, especially since there are people detained in detention centers outside the authority of the government".