Coal mining has been the activity that kept Jerada’s miners busy since 1927. Extracting anthracite, a type of coal that contains relatively pure carbon, these workers were exposed to hard conditions that had a huge impact on their future lives. Alongside the economic and demographic aspects thoroughly explained in one of Yabiladi’s previous articles, and which have affected the lives of these miners, they had to worry about the potential health issues associated with mining
The July 2001 agreement ordering to close the Jerada mine has promised to boost the city’s development rate. Sixteen years later, this objective has not been obtained yet. To escape precariousness, unemployed young people die every year trying to extract coal from the ground under difficult conditions. This time the death of two brothers has led to a social unrest in the region, which is witnessing its own Hirak popular movement.