Moroccan women in Huelva say they are blackmailed by their managers in a new investigation

In a new investigation Spanish newspaper El Espanol reported the accounts of seven Moroccan women who were blackmailed into having sex by their managers in Huelva’s strawberry farms.

Published Saturday, 19th of May, El Espanol’s investigative paper featured the experiences of Moroccan farm workers who claimed being assaulted by their managers and bosses because of their vulnerable status.

Habiba started first. She is a 37-year-old field worker, who arrived in Huelva in April, 2017. On her first day in the farm, her boss entered her room and wanted to have sex with her. Habiba was joined by Fatima, a 36-year-old Moroccan who came to Spain in March to work in the fields.

The mother from Beni Mellal claims that her Spanish manager blackmailed her into having sex with him after taking her passport. Fatima, however, plotted her escape by telling him that they have to formalize their relationship and then took her passport and fled with the help of a friend.

Meanwhile, Chania Rabia, a 45-year-old worker, has chosen to bravely denounce her alleged assaulter. The mother of three accuses a man called «Mustapha» of «wanting to sexually abuse her».

She says that he was a friend of her manager and he threatened to make him fire her if she refuses having sex with him. «He wants to rape me. I left the farm… I'm going to report that», Chania told El Espanol.

Three Moroccan women, namely Amina, Dalia and Malak have all stated that their managers wanted to have sex with them and that after they refused they were fired. The three women aged between 27 and 39 years old have children to support back home.

Buzzfeed News' investigation

El Espanol’s story comes as an investigation on the same topic was published April by Buzzfeed News Germany. The latter spoke to several Moroccan women working in strawberry farms in Huelva. Featuring a series of accounts, some of these farm workers claimed being sexually assaulted, raped, blackmailed and abused.  

One of the women interviewed by buzzfeed News had even claimed that she was raped by her manager. Nicknamed Kalima, the Moroccan woman who used to work in a strawberry farm near Palos, says she had lodged a complaint against her alleged aggressor on the 3rd of May 2017.

Responding to the Buzzfeed news investigation, the Ministry of Employment and Vocational Training sent a delegation to Huelva to investigate the conditions in which Moroccan women in the farms work.

Published on Saturday the 19th, a communiqué by the ministry denied all allegations, insisting that there is no record of complaints lodged in Spain by Moroccan farm workers. Visiting three pioneering companies in Huelva on May the 10th and 11th, the ministry stressed that the «conditions in which Moroccan women work abide by the international laws».

Contacted by Yabiladi on Tuesday, BuzzFeed News argued that it «has a copy of the complaint Kalima filed with the prosecutor at the court in Moguer in early May 2017».

Buzzfeed News has not published the documents, as they reveal Kalima’s real name. For the record, Kalima has told Buzzfeed News that she was blackmailed by her alleged rapist after she filed the complaint in Spain.