Colloquy Calls for Protection of housemaids' Dignity and Rights

A colloquy held Saturday in Settat, 50-KM south-east of Casablanca, has called for the protection of house-maids dignity and rights.

The colloquy on "the juridical protection of women: housemaids as a sample" has called the government to implement the provisions of the international convention on children's protection and to speed up the elaboration of legal texts to regulate the situation of house-employees. These texts, the participants argued, should include clauses providing for sanctions against anyone employing a child of schooling age and against the persons acting as a go-between in maids recruitment.

NGOs and the civil society in general are called to stage awareness campaigns on the tragic situation of maids.

Secretary of state in charge of social protection, family and childhood, Said Saadi, presented to the colloquy the findings of a study that covered 450 house-employees. The study revealed, he said, that these employees are in a tragic situation. Their salaries are very low, not exceeding in most cases $30 per month, they do not enjoy any social coverage and they are often prey to violence acts on the part of their employers.

These employees suffer from physical and psychological aggressions and have no way to protect themselves, in view the juridical vacuum, he deplored.

Many house-employees, usually young countryside girls, are hired by urban households for very low salaries and are required to do all the household work, from cooking to laundering, in addition to taking care of the infants and children. They wake up in the early hours of the morning and go to bed -if one can call a mattress thrown in the corner of the kitchen a bed-after having served everybody in the house. They eat the leftovers and have no right to medicare or schooling. To have a day-off is a whim for the majority of housemaids and if they dare to disobey an order, physical punishment is their lot.

For the participants in the colloquy, the awareness campaigns should target the employers, but also the very parents of the young maids so that they realize how dire a situation their children are living in.

The association of Amnesty International groups in Morocco and the Hassan I University of Settat sponsored the colloquy.