An Advertising Campaign to Raise Awareness against the Employment of Minors as Domestic Servants

The INSAF association launched an awareness campaign entitled “Arrests” with the support of Khadija Alami’s production company “Ka Film”. This campaign is designed, written and implemented by Alex Lecane, of the agency “109”, through which this association invites citizens to denounce families who employ underage girls as domestic servants. This campaign has spread widely on social media.

According to a national study conducted in 2009, tens of thousands of girls aged between 8 to 16 are employed as domestic servants. They are forced to work long hours in brutal conditions and face violence and abuse on a daily basis.

It should be noted that article 23 of Act 19.12 punishes any person who employs a child under 16 years of age with a fine of 25,000 to 30,000 dirhams. In the event of a repeat offense, this fine is doubled and is accompanied by a prison sentence of 1 to 3 months. According to the association, this law has not changed anything on the ground, despite the communication campaigns and sanctions imposed. Thus, their results remain poor due to the limited and inadequate nature of this law, which does not yet allow labor inspectors and social workers to access the homes of the families concerned, in addition to their insufficient number and the difficulty of reporting employers of underage girls.

The INSAF association offers support to young girls who agree to stop working as domestic servants. For example, 545 of them have received training, and currently 202 girls, 126 of whom are in secondary school and 50 live in a home in Dar Insaf, Al Haouz province. 25 young girls were also referred to vocational training programs, 16 of whom received agricultural training and are ready to develop two projects: a chicken production cooperative in the Irouhaline commune (Chichaoua region) and a Safran cooperative in the Ait Ayoub commune (Al Haouz region).

Founded in 1999, INSAF is a non-profit organization that strives to free girls from domestic service and provide them with housing, administrative, legal, medical and psychological support. This association also makes significant efforts in terms of training and social and professional reintegration of single mothers and their children.