Moroccan Woman Asked for Up to €8,000 to Bring Son to Spain

In a small community centre on Jazmín Street in Huelva, a woman clasps her hands and struggles to hold back her tears. She has taken the bus from a nearby town to meet Fátima Ez Zohayry, president of the Association of Immigrant Women in Action (AMIA). Her face betrays her worry: her son, who stayed in Casablanca, blames her for abandoning him. The Moroccan mother, identified as Salma to protect her anonymity, agreed to tell her story to elDiario.es.

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In Morocco, Salma taught French for 23 years. After separating from her husband, she struggled to provide for her son on her own. She eventually accepted a farmwork contract in Spain, in the province of Granada. Her son was just 12 at the time. She hoped to improve their living conditions and be able to raise him by her side across the Strait. Two months after arriving, she obtained her papers.

The years went by, and Salma took on one job after another. In summer, she worked as a kitchen assistant in bars and restaurants. In winter, she joined fruit-packing warehouses. She also took jobs as a home-care aide, often without being registered with Social Security. She says some employers paid part of her wages in cash. She accepted these conditions for fear of losing her job.

Meanwhile, her son grew up in Casablanca. He is now 22, has finished secondary school and is struggling to imagine his future. The separation has badly damaged their relationship. When they speak on the phone, he sometimes refuses to turn on his camera so his mother can see him. He blames her for leaving and, according to Salma, has even confided that he has had suicidal thoughts. His mother recounts these conversations with tears in her eyes, convinced that the years spent apart have created a distance she can no longer bridge.

A job offer costing up to €8,000

For years, Salma has been trying to bring her son to Spain legally. She hopes to find a company willing to offer him a job, but keeps encountering demands for money. Employers and managers have allegedly demanded up to €8,000 to provide the job offer required for his application.

Fátima Ez Zohayry is familiar with these practices. As head of AMIA, which supports immigrant women workers facing abuse and administrative difficulties, she says the sale of job offers is a recurring problem. The amount cited recalls a network dismantled in Spain in 2021 that sold fake contracts to Moroccan and Pakistani migrants for up to €8,000.

Adding to her financial difficulties is a sense of insecurity. Salma says she hears racist insults in the street and fears abuse at work. To protect herself, she sometimes pretends she lives with a husband and children in Spain. She believes employers take greater advantage of immigrant women when they know they live alone. At 61, she describes a life divided between work and isolation.

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Her son once considered entering Spain irregularly via Sebta or Melilla. He abandoned the idea, frightened by the risks of the crossing. At AMIA’s offices, Fátima speaks with Salma in Darija, explains the possible steps and offers her tea and biscuits. The mother is now considering another way out of their ten years apart: if her son cannot join her legally, she will return to live in Morocco so she can be with him.