Moroccans risk lives to scrape meagre living from coal pits
jerada (Morocco) — They call them “the mines of death”. In the neglected northern Moroccan mining city of Jerada, hundreds of people risk their lives every day to scrape a meagre living from perilous abandoned coal pits.
Last week, two brothers died in a tunnel accident, 85 metres below ground, sparking days of mass protests in the impoverished city.
Abderrazak Daioui, who was with the brothers, narrowly escaped the same fate.
“Houcine and Jedouane were just below me,” the 22-year-old said. “One of them dug horizon- tally and hit a water well. We were flooded. I hung on my rope and managed to get back up. They weren’t so lucky.”
Living in a modest, unfinished house, Abderrazak works to support his wife and daughter, his six brothers and his 80-year-old father — himself a former miner.
“There is no alternative, no work. That’s why I risk my life,” Abderrazak said.
Earning as little as 100 dirhams ($11) per day, he has worked in the mines for over three years. He says he drinks “lots of milk” in a bid to counter the effects of the
There is no alternative, no work. That’s why I risk my life
Abderrazak, A coal miner
coal dust he inhales. The deaths of the two brothers, aged 23 and 30, sparked a wave of protests as residents accused the authorities of leaving them to their fate.
Thousands of people protested on Tuesday against economic marginalisation, accusing authorities of “abandoning” them. “The people want an economic alternative,” demonstrators chanted, carrying Moroccan flags on their shoulders and insisting that their protests were peaceful.
“How is it that young people who have done their studies end up in the pits of death to face the same fate as their parents?” asked Said, an unemployed graduate.
The mine was the economic lifeblood of Jerada, employing some 9,000 workers, until it was shut down in the late 1990s by authorities. —