Morocco Sanctions Officials for Obstructing ’Cities Without Slums’ Housing Program

The Ministry of the Interior has sanctioned several offenders among the law enforcement officers in Kenitra, Temara, Sidi Slimane, El Hajeb and Taza for their involvement in the blockage of the "Cities without Slums" program designed initially for the rehousing and resettlement of precarious populations, reports Assabah. The disciplinary council has issued against them decisions of transfer and placement on a sidetrack.

These sanctions do not satisfy civil society actors. They would have wished that these law enforcement officers, who have committed serious offenses, would have suffered the same fate as the caid of Kenitra. The justice had been seized of his file. This official is at the origin of the stoppage of this rehousing program because he had allowed foreign persons to the city to build anarchic houses. The executive office of the Moroccan League for Citizenship and Human Rights (LMCDH) has in its sights the many caids and auxiliary agents of Kenitra who have illegally enriched themselves by committing such "crimes" and all those who have contributed to the transformation of tribal collective lands into slums. It has asked the presidency of the public prosecutor’s office to prosecute them.

Civil society actors have criticized "the complicit silence observed by the local authorities and the municipal council of Kenitra in the face of the blockage of the rehabilitation program of the Ain Sebaa Makhalif and Bir Rami areas". According to them, the failure of the "Cities without Slums" program is also due to the lack of political and administrative will to fight against anarchic constructions in several areas, which constitute an electoral reservoir.