Morocco: mobilization of agricultural workers against land corruption and for the defense of their rights

Report from the FNSA – a member of La Via Campesina in Morocco – on the strike of agricultural workers, victims of partnerships on State lands, in front of the headquarters of the Agricultural Development Agency in Rabat (22/06/26)

On Monday, June 22, starting at 11:00 a.m., more than 70 agricultural workers from the regions of Kénitra, Sidi Kacem, and Sidi Slimane gathered in front of the headquarters of the Agricultural Development Agency in Rabat. These workers are employed by the agricultural companies “SAAG,” “Amlak Amalala,” “Jardins d’Ourebza,” “Helista,” “Mlih Akri,” as well as the Derham Group.

These companies are involved, alongside the State, in investment and partnership contracts concerning State agricultural lands in the aforementioned regions. The managers of these companies have been exploiting these agricultural lands since 2006, 2009, and 2015.

During their mobilization, the workers chanted slogans and held banners denouncing speculation on State agricultural lands by investors. Most of them have proceeded with subleasing the lands in violation of the law and the spirit of the partnership, originally designed to encourage productive investment that creates added value, employment, and local development.

The workers also chanted for several hours slogans affirming their commitment to their right to be included in any process of reallocation of lands located in Sidi Slimane. They demanded the payment of their suspended wages, their regularization, access to social coverage, as well as the cancellation of the dismissal of one of their colleagues, who was sanctioned for defending his rights and denouncing land speculation on an agricultural estate involving a regional member of parliament.

In his intervention on behalf of the National Union of the Agricultural Sector, Idriss Adda, deputy secretary general, denounced those responsible for the ongoing suffering of workers affected by partnerships on State agricultural lands in Berkane, Béni Mellal, and Taroudant.

Regarding the situation of the struggling workers, the union representative stated that they are victims of bureaucracy and its inability to resolve outstanding issues, in a context of legal vacuum and shortcomings that accompanied the transfer of State lands to the private sector. They are also victims of the abuse of power by certain influential economic actors, who have circumvented laws and procedures in order to protect illegitimate interests and accumulate unjustified profits. He also emphasized that these workers and their children are also victims of corruption, traces of which appear in several protest-related cases.

He clarified that the workers are not demanding privileges or additional benefits, but rather the payment of wages suspended for approximately seven and four years, access to social coverage, and their registration with the National Social Security Fund. They also demand to witness the failure of the authorities to put an end to the practices of intermediaries and speculators on public agricultural lands.

They also denounce the responsibility of the Ministry of Finance, in particular the Directorate of State Domains, for the negligent management of these agricultural assets, left to degradation, illegal occupation, and speculation. The deputy secretary general also questioned the Ministry of the Interior, as a member of the national commission overseeing partnerships on State agricultural lands.

The spokesperson called on the relevant authorities, at their various levels of responsibility, to intervene in order to ensure justice for the workers and their families, and to protect public lands and resources through the strict enforcement of the law.

He also announced that this mobilization marks the beginning of a cycle of local and national actions, organized by these workers and their families within their union framework, in order to continue denouncing their suffering, aggravated by successive deaths among the workers concerned, and to denounce those responsible for these situations, while demanding an immediate resolution without further delay.

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