Morocco to Crack Down on Child Abandonment with New Parental Responsibility Law

The abandoned child is the "result of the mistake of two people. He is a full-fledged citizen and will have to be taken care of" by his biological parents "until he reaches the age of 21," declared this week the Minister of Justice, Abdellatif Ouahbi, during a meeting organized by the Lafquih Titouani Foundation. The official adds that "if it is the mother who ensures the custody, the father will have to pay this allowance".

The measure will be introduced in the Penal Code and will help reduce this phenomenon and, above all, further hold the parents concerned responsible. "The one-night party is to be paid for 21 years. It’s better than abandoning the child on the street," Ouahbi observes. Each year, around 3,000 children are born out of wedlock in Morocco, according to data collected by the association "Insaf", a situation that contributes to the constant increase in the abandonment rate.

The NGO also notes a considerable increase in the number of single mothers who often end up abandoning their children. Some 70 children of single mothers are abandoned per day, it notes, stressing the somewhat taboo nature of the issue of out-of-wedlock relationships in a Muslim society, this act being considered "a serious religious sin, a violation of all societal norms," explains "Insaf".

It is a "tragic affair" that concerns all women from all social classes, adds the association which notes that "Morocco has adopted several international conventions for the protection of human rights, women, children... Nevertheless, reality does not fully embrace these advances enshrined in these various legal instruments. That is why the Sovereign did not fail to mention, in his last Throne Speech, the shortcomings contained in the Family Code".