Hunger-striking jobless graduates in critical condition

A group of 12 jobless Moroccan graduates who have been on hunger strike for nearly 20 days are now in a "critical" condition, doctors said in Rabat Wednesday.

The strikers are part of a group of unemployed doctors and engineers who have been protesting for months in front of the Rabat office of the Moroccan Labor Union, to demand work.

"The health condition of these twelve persons is worrying and is deteriorating on a daily basis," a member of the medical commission of the Moroccan Human Rights Association (AMDH) warned.

For Moroccan minister in charge of relations with Parliament, Mohamed Bouzoubaa, the hunger strike was not justified because the government was "ready to negotiate" to find a mechanism under which most graduates would be recruited.

Bouzoubaa recalled that the government had held meetings with representatives of the unemployed graduates, during which they agreed to stop the hunger strike.

The Moroccan Human Rights Association has appealed to the government to "intervene urgently to prevent a disaster since the state of health of the graduates is rapidly deteriorating and their lives are in danger."