28.11.2012. A long car ride north of the center of
Morocco’s capital, Rabat, behind a market and through a maze of narrow alleys
in a densely populated northern suburb, Takadoum, is a crumbling building.
Here, illegal sub-Saharan migrants share tea and swap stories of assault, rape
and daily encounters with hostility.
At a
gathering in October on the roofless terrace of the building, a couple of dozen
illegal migrants sat on a mattress or on little stools beneath a blue plastic
sheet to protect them from the rain, and shared harrowing accounts of their
lives in Morocco.
The
Moroccans think “they can do whatever they want to us,” said one migrant
from Niger who asked not to be named out of fear for his safety. “The police
rip off our identity cards and arrest us and people hold their noses when they
see us.”
