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PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHCL #0115/01 1551804
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 031804Z JUN 08
FM AMCONSUL CASABLANCA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 8085
INFO RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC
RUEHAS/AMEMBASSY ALGIERS 2989
RUEHBP/AMEMBASSY BAMAKO 0279
RUEHEG/AMEMBASSY CAIRO 0886
RUEHDK/AMEMBASSY DAKAR 0299
RUEHNM/AMEMBASSY NIAMEY 0274
RUEHNK/AMEMBASSY NOUAKCHOTT 2355
RUEHRB/AMEMBASSY RABAT 8335
RUEHTU/AMEMBASSY TUNIS 2109
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 0656
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS

UNCLAS CASABLANCA 000115 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR DRL/IL, G/TIP, INL/TIP, NEA/RA, AND NEA/MAG 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ELAB EIND ETRD PHUM ECON SOCI MO
SUBJECT: RESPONSE TO REQUEST FOR INFORMATION ON FORCED LABOR AND 
CHILD LABOR IN THE PRODUCTION OF GOODS FOR MANDATORY CONGRESSIONAL 
REPORTING REQUIREMENTS 
 
REF: STATE 043120 
 
¶1.  This cable responds to a request for information on the use of 
forced labor and exploitative child labor in the production of goods 
in Morocco.  While Morocco does not have a record of forced child 
labor, child labor does exist and is used in the production of some 
goods, mainly in the handicraft and carpet sectors.  There is also 
anecdotal evidence that child labor is used in textile production; 
however, we were unable to sufficiently verify the extent to which 
it exists.  Children also work in the agricultural sector but mainly 
on bona fide family farms and holdings. 
 
¶2.  Types of goods manufactured by exploitative labor 
 
-- Good 
   ---- 
 
- Carpets 
 
-- Type of exploitation found in the production of goods 
 
- Exploitative child labor - The GOM, local NGOs and international 
organizations have confirmed that children, especially girls, are 
used in the production of Moroccan carpets.  A 2004 joint study 
conducted by the Ministry of Employment and Vocational Training, the 
International Labor Organization's (ILO's) International Program for 
the Elimination of Child Labor (IPEC) and the World Bank found that 
600,000 children worked in Morocco, a small percentage of whom 
labored in the production of goods. 
 
-- Narrative 
 
- While it is impossible to confirm the exact number of girls 
working in the carpet industry, a 2003 UNICEF study claimed that 
there were between 38,000 and 50,000 underage girls working in the 
sector.  No organization has performed a more recent study to 
measure any changes that may have occurred since the new Labor Code, 
ratified in 2004, increased the legal age of employment from 12 to 
¶15. 
 
According to the 2003 study, conditions in the workshops are 
substantially sub-par.  Approximately 88 percent of all workshops 
have moderate to poor air circulation, 83 percent have moderate to 
poor lighting, and only 79 percent have toilet facilities, nearly 
half of which are below standard. 
 
Young girls typically begin working in carpet factories between the 
ages of 5 and 7.  Girls this young often stand four to five girls to 
a loom, working with only a few short breaks a day.  The study 
states that 50 percent of the girls work 10-11 hours a day, and 47 
percent work more than 11 hours a day.  Between 70 and 80 percent of 
the girls work six days a week with Sunday being the most common day 
off. 
 
There are various health hazards associated with standing in one 
position for long periods that are compounded by the dangers the 
girls face by inhaling wool particles.  The girls also frequently 
suffer from minor to serious cuts from the sharp scissors used to 
clip the carpets.  According to a UNICEF worker, by the time the 
girls reach adolescence they may suffer from arthritic hands, 
chronic respiratory infections, poor eyesight, and stooped back. 
Almost 35 percent of the girls claim to be victims of work 
accidents.  A UNICEF representative says that one in ten girls 
suffer from long-term health problems as a result of their labor and 
most are illiterate.  Moreover, there is a cultural stigma attached 
to the work which makes the girls less marriageable in later life. 
 
Most girls in this industry are placed by their poor parents who are 
paid 20-350 dirham (USD 2.75-47.75) for the girls' labor each month. 
 Many of the parents are unemployed and claim the girls' meager 
income is necessary to support the family.  Families and employers 
also use culturally based justifications to place the girls, saying 
they are learning a trade for the future.  Employers claim that the 
girls little fingers are capable of doing intricate work that adults 
are not adept at performing and forbidding the little ones from 
working would mean losing a culturally based art form. 
 
Girls, who have been rescued from the carpet industry and are 
 
 
currently enrolled in an education project run by UNICEF, Red Cross, 
and European-funded NGOs, claim that they were frequently abused on 
the job.  One child, attending classes with UNICEF, claimed, "I 
worked more than 11 hours a day and our maalam (supervisor) struck 
me with a stick every time she noticed that I was slow."  The 2003 
UNICEF study reports that 72 percent of the girls are subjected to 
either physical or verbal abuse. 
 
-- Incidence 
 
- While every factory does not use child labor in the production of 
carpets, the phenomenon occurs throughout the country.  The largest 
areas of abuse appear to be in the regions of greater Fes and 
Marrakech, where UNICEF estimates approximately 15,000-20,000 girls 
are employed making carpets in each city. 
 
-- Host Government, industry, or NGO efforts specifically designed 
to combat forced labor of adults or children in the production of 
goods 
 
- In 2000, the GOM inaugurated a program to address the problem of 
young girls working in the carpet industry.  The pilot project, 
located in Fes, encouraged employers to allow their young employees 
to attend non-formal education courses part-time while continuing to 
work.  The project expanded in 2003 when UNICEF and IPEC joined the 
effort.  At that time, the program also began to withdraw younger 
girls from the labor force and reintegrate them into the formal 
educational system.  To date the program has reached over 1,300 
children. 
 
The Red Crescent also offers a program in Fes that targets girls 
12-15 who cannot or do not wish to be re-integrated into the formal 
school system.  These girls continue to work in the carpet sector 
while learning to read and write.  In 2006, UNICEF, in cooperation 
with the GOM, replicated the rescue project in Marrakech, where it 
has also proven effective. 
 
As a result of the success of the program in Fes, the GOM dedicated 
150,000 dirhams (USD 20,475) annually to handicraft associations in 
five cities -- Marrakech, Safi, Tangier, Meknes and Sale -- to 
develop programs similar to the one in Fes. 
 
-- Good 
   ---- 
 
- Handicrafts including: pottery, tile work, wood, metal work, 
leather goods 
 
-- Type of exploitation found in the production of the good 
 
- Exploitative child labor- The GOM, local NGOs and international 
organizations have confirmed that children, especially boys, are 
used in the production of these goods in Morocco. 
 
-- Narrative 
 
- The experience of young boys working in the handicrafts sector is 
similar to that of young girls working in the carpet sector.  It is 
impossible in this sector, as it is in the carpet sector, to 
establish the exact number of boys currently employed making 
handicrafts. 
 
In the handicrafts sector, boys' work can include anything from 
manual labor to actual production of goods.  Like Moroccan girls, 
boys begin working at a very young age, approximately seven or eight 
years.  The boys' salary is similar to the girls of the same age, 
and, as with the girls, the money is nearly always delivered to the 
parent.  Again, most of the children working in the handicrafts 
sector are from families facing economic challenges.  According to a 
UNICEF study, 95 percent of the children employed in handicrafts 
come from families of 6-9 people living in domiciles consisting of 
one to two rooms. 
 
The health risks faced by boys working in handicrafts are numerous. 
In addition to physical abuse at the hands of their employers, 
according to IPEC and UNICEF, the children are often subjected to 
physical risks from their actual work.  In the pottery sector, 
children are exposed to toxic fumes and are expected to carry overly 
 
 
heavy loads of supplies and fuel.  In the pottery and tile sector, 
boys are exposed to lead glazes and solutions that are used in the 
production of goods.  The boys may spend many hours a day using 
their bare hands to immerse the products in the lead solution, 
thereby absorbing toxins that can result in permanent damage to 
their health. 
 
Young boys working in the metal industry often carry heavy materials 
causing lifelong back and joint problems.  Serious cuts, abrasions 
and welding burns left untreated leave them susceptible to severe 
infections.  The boys are also exposed to corrosive acid, used for 
rinsing metal products, toxic fumes, and flammable substances.  The 
boys seldom receive sufficient medical care for injuries sustained 
on the job. 
 
Work in leather goods and shoe production exposes the boys to toxic 
fumes from glue and harsh chemicals used in curing leather.  Hearing 
loss is also a reality for children working in the shoe industry due 
to the loud machinery and lack of protective gear. 
 
There is often little or inadequate supervision for youth working in 
hazardous situations.  The president of a Dutch trade union, in Fes 
to visit a union-funded child labor project, recounted the following 
story, including photos, on the union's website.  While in Morocco 
she met a boy who caught his hands in a machine while working in a 
shoe factory at the age of 12.  His adult supervisor had gone home 
for the day, and he was alone in the factory.  Fortunately, the boy 
was able to extricate himself from the machine and wander across 
town to a hospital.  His hands were so badly mangled, however, that 
they had to be amputated at the wrist.  According to UNICEF 
officials, this is not a unique incident; there are many similar 
stories in the region. 
 
-- Incidence 
 
- While there has been little research done on the phenomenon of 
boys' work in the handicraft sector, it is clear that child labor in 
this sector is not an unusual practice.  Most reports on child labor 
violations in the sector come from the Fes and Marrakech regions but 
we have been told that there are violations throughout Morocco. 
 
-- Good 
   ---- 
 
- Textiles 
 
--  Type of exploitation found in the production of the good 
 
- Exploitative child labor - International organizations and the GOM 
admit that child labor is found in the textile sector. 
 
--  Narrative 
 
- According to UNICEF, children work in the textile sector.  The 
majority of children in the sector work in small non-formal 
enterprises.  Children in this sector, like other sectors, are 
subject to long hours and low financial compensation.  According to 
a 2003 report from the European watchdog group, The Clean Clothes 
Campaign, conditions for children working in the textile sector in 
terms of work hours, wages and security are much worse than for 
adults.  They claimed, in 2003, that children's salary averages 
about 3 dirham/hour (USD .41) which was about 1/3 of the Moroccan 
guaranteed minimum wage (SMIG).  We were unable to substantiate more 
recent data on wages and conditions in the sector through reliable 
sources. 
 
--  Incidence 
 
- Children's work in the textile sector appears to be more 
clandestine but less pervasive than in other sectors.  Most of our 
interlocutors claimed that the incidences of child labor in the 
textile sector is mostly limited to small non-formal subcontractors 
and is rarely found in larger factories. 
 
--  Host government, industry, or NGO efforts specifically designed 
to combat forced labor in the production of goods 
 
- Post is unaware of any GOM or private sector program that targets 
 
 
child labor in the textile sector. 
 
¶3.  The majority of working children in Morocco, over 85 percent, 
work in agriculture.  Post has, as yet, found no specific evidence 
that children's work in agriculture goes beyond the acceptable 
standards applied to children's work on bona fide family farms or 
holdings.  There is, however, the possibility that such work does 
exist in commodities' production in Morocco.  Post will continue to 
follow child labor in the agricultural sector for any new 
developments or evidence of abusive child labor. 
 
¶4.  The GOM has made great strides in attacking some areas of child 
labor, child domestic labor for example.  The use of children as 
domestic labor has become less culturally acceptable in recent years 
and appears to be on the decline, partially due to GOM awareness 
campaigns.  Child labor in the carpet and handicraft sector, 
however, continues to be not only widely accepted but in some areas 
encouraged.  Many children are sent to learn a trade when the 
educational system fails to provide a viable alternative.  For many 
poor families, the cost of schoolbooks is prohibitive and often 
adequate educational facilities are unavailable.  In these cases, 
parents feel the best alternative is for the child to learn a trade 
and guarantee stability in the future. 
 
ORDONEZ