Moroccan Artisans Detained in Algeria After Protests Over Unpaid Wages and Murder Sentence

The information is reported by the daily Assabah which specifies that dozens of Moroccan nationals, originally from the cities of Taza and Fez, have been in "arbitrary" detention in Algeria for several days. These Moroccan artisans were protesting against the lenient decision of the Algerian justice system, which sentenced the murderer of one of them, an Algerian officer in the Sidi Bel Abbes region, to only four months in prison, according to sources at the daily.

This sentence did not fail to "arouse the astonishment of Algerian human rights defenders". "The obsession of the Algerian corporals for Moroccan zellige and for the appropriation of everything that is Moroccan heritage has reached such a point that Moroccan artisans are today sequestered in this country," lamented Brahim El Ghaouti, a specialist in Moroccan heritage, quoted by the daily.

The specialist, who has resided in Algeria for several years, confides that many Moroccan artisans have been victims of fraud and theft of their documents, then incarcerated after claiming their salaries. Others have been victims of physical abuse, beatings and injuries before being dispossessed of their belongings.

The Algerians offer attractive salaries to Moroccan artisans with the promise that they will be able to create companies specializing in Moroccan zellige and plaster. But in the end, they are exploited in their work and stripped of their belongings. El Ghaouti says he has a list of Moroccan workers in the hotel industry who "were lured by money", then mistreated and dispossessed of their belongings after expressing the desire to return to Morocco.