MOROCCO: Unemployed Moroccan blind graduates protest against unemployment

Unemployed Moroccan blind graduates chained themselves to the railings of the Parliament building in the capital Rabat to protest against unemployment and demand more public sector jobs. A group of unemployed protesters chained themselves to the railings of the parliament building and chanted demands for work in the public sector until policemen separated them with cutting equipment and ejected them onto the pavement. Abdelhak Harmouch, a member of Morocco's National Committee of Blind Unemployed Graduates, said the protesters had resorted to the drastic measure after more peaceful protest means proved ineffectual. "After sending letters to many parties, we did not get any reply. That's why we organised peaceful demonstrations and sit-ins first, then we decided to escalate our action because the government does not listen to our just and legitimate request of giving us jobs in the civil service," Harmouch said. Morocco suffers from mass unemployment with around one million of Morocco's 30-million population officially unemployed. Joblessness is especially high among graduates after state payroll cuts led to a dearth of public sector jobs. Government-created jobs have plummeted from 28,000 a year in the early 1980s to 7,000 in 2006 and 2007. Even the private sector that employs 90 per cent of Morocco's workforce creates between 100,000 and 200,000 jobs a year while nearly 700,00 people arrive at the job market annually. A university degree provides no guarantee for a job and many well-educated Moroccans can remain jobless for year after they finish university. In desperation, some of them try illegal immigration, mainly to Europe, where they hope job prospects will be better. Local human rights organisations and trade unions are fully behind the various organisations representing the unemployed graduates. They believe that with good governance, the state could create jobs for the graduates, especially after it implemented two years ago a voluntary redundancy scheme which saw 45,000 civil servants leave work for early retirement. Thami Belamaallem, a human right activist, says the public sector unemployment problem does not require a huge budget to be solved. "What we are asking for is that between 100 and 200 jobs be created yearly for the unemployed post-graduates and for the jobless blind graduates," Belamaallem said. The Moroccan government says it has taken many measures to tackle the problem by helping employers with tax incentives and training programmes. It also set up job information and orientation centres. Driss Guerraoui, an adviser to the Moroccan prime minister, said the public sector unemployment problem has been exaggerated. "It's because of the democracy we have in Morocco that associations such the one for these unemployed graduates are making their voices heard on the national and international levels and that's why this phenomenon is exaggerated. Lately, we managed to control this situation. The government set up an exceptional voluntary scheme for the unemployed graduates," Guerraoui said. Economists say only long-term, sustainable economic growth can solve the unemployment problem. They estimate that each additional decimal point of growth represents 20,000 new jobs. Last year, official Moroccan statistics said the country achieved the exceptional economic growth rate of 8.1 per-cent. If this official statistic is accurate, and, more importantly, repeated in coming years, the graduates and other unemployed Moroccans will have reason to hope they will find work.

ITN Source | May 2, 2007

Tags:. .separated. .immigration. .centres. .measures. .illegal