Surge in Moroccan Domestic Workers Crosses 2,000 Mark in Ceuta

They are increasingly numerous, the Moroccan women who cross the border of the autonomous city to work as domestic workers.

At the beginning of the 2000s, only 349 workers were affiliated to this special system, a figure that rose to 716 in 2010. This number fell to 570 in January 2012, when the Government Delegation relaxed the conditions for regularization and reached 1172 in January 2013, according to La vanguardia.

Since the beginning of this year, this figure has increased by more than 52% since the Government Delegation has imposed more restrictive controls to prevent cross-border entry without a work or residence permit in Spain.

"Although there is no official census, it is estimated that around 4,000 Moroccan women cross the border between Ceuta and Morocco daily to perform paid work, mainly as domestic workers in a feminized sector with high demand," Nuria Galán pointed out in her doctoral thesis on the sector.

Indeed, according to her research, "the cross-border migration movements of these women are motivated by the lack of employment and expectations in their country of origin and by the way of meeting their own and their family’s economic needs".