Taroudant - According to BBC, Morocco is the one country in the region prepared to help refugees.
A Moroccan women cooperative “la Fondation Orient-Occident” - Orient-Occident Foundation - offered professional training and an opportunity to earn a decent living to hundreds of refugees from the trouble spots of the Middle East and Africa who end up in Morocco.
After a long trip of hardship and danger, Khadija Saleh, an Iraqi refugee, who fled the sectarian conflict in her country, found peace and work in Morocco.
“When we arrived to Amman with nothing to call our own, we went to the Moroccan embassy. They really helped us, gave us a visa to Morocco and financial support” Khadija Saleh, said in a BBC video posted on Youtube.
Mrs. Saleh is one of many women refuges who were given work at the Rabat-based “Foundation Orient-Occident.”
Under the brand name “Migrants du Mondes”, (Migrants of the world) the women employers are dedicatedly making Moroccan traditional costumes, particularly kaftans, a business that give them enough to live a descent life.
“We have women from Afghanistan, from Iraq, but most of them are migrants from countries in the sub-Saharan Africa, especially from Congo,” Nathalie Freige, director of Orient-Occident Foundation, said in the same video.
The foundation has created a network of shops to sell their products.
Thousands of refugees and migrants from the sub-Saharan countries arrived in Morocco with the aim to crossing the sea to Europe, but many who could not make it to the other side stay illegally in Morocco and try to find work.
Early January, Morocco launched an operation to give residency permits to tens of thousands of immigrants living in the country illegally, after the king expressed concern about their harsh condition of living.
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