GADEM denounces 'systemic' sub-Saharan migrant arrests in Rabat

Authorities in Rabat detained at least 420 non-Moroccan residents of African origins from January 2021 to December 2022, according to the Group Against Racism and Defending the Rights of Foreigners and Migrants (GADEM).

GADEM noted in its recent report “Status of Non-Citizen Moroccans in Rabat,” released this May, that the arrests took place without any prior confirmation of the detainees’ identities or administrative status, and without alerting them of the circumstances surrounding their detention.

GADEM organized field operations in several Rabat neighborhoods and compiled the information into the analytical report, along with the 36 testimonials that were acquired during these missions.

The report provided a general outline of authorities’ policies for migrants in the years 2021 and 2022 in Rabat, as well as the status of foreigners living there.

“The arrests were carried out almost daily, collectively, and only targeted, black-skinned non-Moroccan citizens,” according to GADEM.

Four people who were being arrested were injured because of police aggression, according to 12 testimonials in the report.

Several people were arrested in streets or inside their homes in different neighborhoods in the capital, including Youssoufia, Taqadom, Hay Nahda, Medina, Qamra, G5, and Souissi.

The testimonies gathered by GADEM stated that the detainees were “taken to enclosed spaces and kept there for several hours, they could not exit freely without obtaining permission, which is deprivation of their freedom, as they are forced to stay there.”

“At least 328 people were forcibly transferred in buses after their arrest to other cities in Morocco, ” according to GADEM.

In general, the buses gradually discharge passengers along the route to the destination city, sometimes in desolate areas distant from the cities, sometimes at the city entrances or on the sides of the road.

The detainees come from Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea Conakry, Mali, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burkina Faso, and Sudan. 

The association questioned “the legal framework that establishes the practices observed in the city of Rabat, which target only black people who are not Moroccan citizens, without any other clear basis.”