Moroccan Mother and Children Seek Asylum in Ceuta, Alleging Persecution

Khadija El Homrani, a Moroccan woman, and her four children aged 3, 5, 6 and 9 years old, left Wednesday the CETI, where they had been living for 9 months. In an interview with El Faro de Ceuta, she says she "did not leave Morocco out of necessity, but because she was persecuted".

It all started three and a half years ago, when she crossed the border to Ceuta to buy goods for her store. That’s when a Moroccan police commissioner beat her on the head and beat her for hours, with no one coming to her rescue. She filed a complaint about this assault with the Ministry of the Interior and the justice system in Rabat, to no avail.

A month after the incident, she continues, "I went back to Ceuta and my merchandise worth 2,500 euros, as well as my car, were seized by customs. The ’persecution’ continued in my store where some Moroccan agents came to pick up my merchandise worth 15,000 euros".

Tired of this "psychological pressure", and having also noticed that her husband had started using drugs, the Moroccan woman decided to leave the Center where the living conditions were unacceptable, and cross the border with her four children and her 15-year-old brother.

With a broken heart, the Moroccan woman dreams of a better future for her children in Ceuta. For now, she and her children are sleeping under the stars. But El Homrani promises to start looking for an association to help them.

"I just want to have a decent life again with my children who must above all study, go to school, treat their wounds and eat... I’m starving and I don’t know what to do. I just want to escape the problem that has been haunting me for more than three years," she adds.