Morocco is a source, destination, and transit country for men, women, and children who are subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking. Some rural Moroccan girls as young as 6 years old are recruited to work in domestic service in cities and become victims of forced labor, experiencing nonpayment of wages, threats, restrictions on movement, and physical, psychological, or sexual abuse; however, an NGO reported the incidence of child domestic work has decreased since 2005. Some Moroccan boys endure forced labor while employed as apprentices in the artisanal and construction industries and in mechanic shops. Some men, women, and children, primarily from sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, enter Morocco voluntarily, but illegally, with the assistance of smugglers; upon arrival, some of the women and older girls are coerced into prostitution or, less frequently, domestic service. International organizations and local NGOs report unaccompanied children and women from Cote d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Nigeria are highly vulnerable to sex trafficking and forced labor in Morocco. Some women from the Philippines and Indonesia are recruited for employment as domestic workers in Morocco; upon arrival, some are subjected to forced labor, experiencing nonpayment of wages, withholding of passports, and physical abuse at the hands of their employers. A local NGO noted in 2014 that the lack of a Philippine embassy or consulate in Morocco puts Philippine nationals, particularly domestic workers, at additional risk of trafficking and makes it more difficult for them to receive protection services. Criminal networks operating in Oujda, on the Algerian border, as well as in the northern coastal town of Nador, force undocumented foreign migrant women into prostitution and begging; these networks in Oujda also reportedly force children into begging. Some female migrants who transit Oujda, particularly Nigerians, are forced into prostitution once they reach Europe. In 2014, Morocco experienced a notable increase in the number of Syrian migrants and refugees, though no information about their vulnerability to trafficking in Morocco was available.
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