Morocco Intensifies Crackdown on Sub-Saharan Migrants in Laâyoune

What is happening with sub-Saharan migrants living in Morocco, more precisely in Laâyoune, a city that serves as a hiding place for them while waiting to leave for the Canary Islands, Spain. Most of them live there illegally without a residence permit.

Koffi (pseudonym) is Ivorian. He has witnessed these arrests, which he describes as violent. "The police arrive in the middle of the night, sometimes around 5 a.m., when everyone is asleep. They knock two or three times, and if no one opens, they break down the door and make everyone come out, including women and children. To escape the police, some are willing to take all risks: a friend broke his arm by jumping out the window," he told France24.

Some have filmed a video in which they recount their misadventure. One of them explains how, in trying to escape the police, he broke his arm by jumping from the balcony. "It was 6 a.m. We were sleeping and suddenly we heard noises outside. We stuck our heads out and saw it was the police. They chased us. We tried to go down by the balcony. There were several of us. Some went down without problem. But us, well..." He confides that he has been hospitalized for ten days and will have to undergo several surgical operations.

For Hassan Amari, an activist with the Moroccan Association of Human Rights (AMDH), the situation is very serious "because the police are bursting into homes without a court order." From the testimonies collected by his association, it appears that after their arrests, the migrants, mostly from Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Mali and Togo, are locked up in an unsanitary detention center on the outskirts of Laâyoune. Others are taken to other regions, often in the desert, near the border with Algeria.

Those who manage to escape the police find their way back to Laâyoune, taking difficult paths and sacrificing a few dirhams for taxi fares. Koffi is saddened to note that since the resumption of relations between Morocco and Spain, the checks have become more rigorous. He explains that to avoid repeated police raids, many of them leave their homes at 5 p.m. "We go hide on construction sites outside the city. We come back home at 10 a.m. to sleep, to rest a bit. Then at 5 p.m., we start again... It’s exhausting."

For now, the Moroccan authorities have not spoken out about these arrests. Hassan Amari estimates that since the beginning of June, more than 1,000 migrants have already been arrested.