Report: LGBTQ+ and Migrants Most Affected by Morocco’s COVID-19 Emergency Measures

Irregular migrants, people with specific needs and homosexuals are among those who have suffered the most, according to the latest report from the Civil Council for the Fight Against All Forms of Discrimination. According to the document, the precariousness and vulnerability of certain population groups present on Moroccan territory have increased due to the state of health emergency. The state of health emergency not only limited their ability to assert their rights, but also gave rise to certain forms of systemic discrimination.

According to the authors of the report, the measures to fight the Covid-19 pandemic "have provided for new offenses that have exposed those who violate them to the risk of criminal prosecution, without taking into account the specific characteristics of certain categories of residents": foreigners, drug addicts and others. Many of them have been prosecuted for having unintentionally violated the restrictions.

To support their claims, they cite as an example "irregular migrants who were arrested and detained during the state of health emergency, outside any legal framework". Without the possibility of having means of recourse. The Civil Council for the Fight Against All Forms of Discrimination denounced these practices which, according to it, are not new. They were applied in the past, particularly in the context of the fight against irregular migration and border control. Between March and December 2020, 490 foreign nationals, mainly from West and Central Africa, had been arrested, mainly in the cities of Tangier, Laâyoune, Rabat, Dakhla and Nador, the association specifies.