She Leaves Her Two Children in Morocco to Work in Spain and Ends Up Homeless

Correspondent Jomana Karadsheh met her in Almería, at a food distribution center run by the Mercedarian Sisters of Charity. In its report broadcast by CNN, the American network said that she had not yet eaten anything that day.

Some days, she reportedly does not even have enough money to buy water and bread.

Yet her journey had begun through a legal route. The worker explains that she left Morocco with a contract to take part in the strawberry harvest in Spain. Her two children, now aged 6 and 4, remained in the country.

On Bladi.net : From seasonal workers in Spain to future business owners in Morocco

After a disagreement with her employer, everything reportedly changed. CNN says that she ended up homeless and is now looking for day-to-day work.

She simply sums up the reason for her departure: poverty. If she had had enough to live on in Morocco, she tells CNN, she would not have left.

From Picking Strawberries to Food Aid

Her testimony appears in an investigation devoted to the hidden side of intensive agriculture in Almería. The region, covered in enormous greenhouses, produces millions of tons of fruit and vegetables every year, destined in particular for European consumers.

CNN met several workers from North Africa and West Africa there who were living in particularly precarious conditions. Every morning, some wait at roundabouts or by the roadside for an employer to offer them a few hours of work.

The network also reports the existence of undeclared jobs paid below the minimum wage. A Ghanaian worker interviewed in the same report says he is paid five euros an hour to work in the greenhouses, sometimes in extreme heat.

The case of this Moroccan mother is different, however: she says she entered Spain with an employment contract. Her story recalls the difficulties already denounced by some Moroccan seasonal workers employed in Spanish fields, despite the legal recruitment programs organized between the two countries.

On Bladi.net : article 56296

In Almería, she now relies on food distributions while continuing to look for work. In Morocco, her two young children are still waiting for their mother, who left for Spain precisely in an attempt to offer them a better life.