Gibraltar's Moroccan workers' fight for rights echoes Ghurkhas,
Unite tells foreign secretary
18th October 2009
The plight of 1,200 Moroccan workers on Gibraltar has disturbing
echoes of the recent fight to win rights for the Ghurkhas, which is
why the UK government must not delay in granting full rights to
another community which has long served this country.
The call for justice comes from Unite, the UK's largest union
and the union of the Moroccan workers, some of whom have lived and
worked on the rock for over 40 years yet are denied basic rights
such as access to public housing, full healthcare and the right to
vote.
Unite has warned that the British government is wide open to a
legal challenge to win full rights for the workers, who have been
paying full taxes and contributing to the wealth of both the UK and
Gibraltar, despite their second class status.
The government is in breach, Unite argues, of its obligations in
international law by denying citizenship to the Moroccan workers.
The foreign secretary, David Milliband, will meet the Gibraltarian
prime minister Senor Coruna tomorrow (Monday).
On the eve of that meeting on National Gibraltar Day, Unite's
deputy general secretary, Jack Dromey, said: "Tomorrow,
Gibraltarians celebrate what is great about their rock and their
culture. It is only right that the Moroccan workers who have helped
to maintain that community’s distinctive way of life are able to
share in this.
"It is time to put right a 40 year wrong and end the scandal of
two-tier citizenship on the rock. Those who have been working,
paying taxes and living legitimately in a country for over 20 years
and sometimes 40 years ought to be given citizenship rights.
Second-class status would be unacceptable in the UK and other parts
of Europe, so should not be acceptable for Moroccans living in
Gibraltar.
“After the recent fight to win fair and equal treatment for the
Ghurkhas for their honourable service to this country, we appeal to
our government and their Gibraltarian counterparts, act now to end
discrimination on your shores and take these very deserving people
out of this limbo.”
Unite represents some 500 Moroccan workers living and working -
many of them for the MoD - in Gibraltar and says their plight can
remain buried no longer. The discrimination in the treatment of
long-standing, legal workers would not be acceptable for those in a
similar position in the UK.
Moroccans in Gibraltar pay full taxes yet are treated as second
class citizens. Very few have been given citizenship rights and
many feel they are battling a hidden criterion which is impossible
for them to meet. They have little access to public housing, forced
instead into expensive private housing which, as low paid workers,
they can ill afford. Their access to public services, including
health care and benefits, is restricted. They are denied the right
to vote in the European elections and they face many problems in
travelling to visit family in Morocco and restrictions on family
visiting them in Gibraltar.
40 years ago, the Gibraltar state and the British government
called on Moroccan workers to take up employment on the rock,
following the closure of the border with Spain. Initially, around
5,000 Moroccan migrant workers in Gibraltar worked in construction,
property and service operations around the naval dockyard playing a
significant role in the economy of the rock when it was on the
verge of collapsing and helping to build the thriving economy of
Gibraltar today.
The number of Moroccans in Gibraltar has gradually fallen and
now stands at around 1,200, many of whom have lived there for 20,
30 or even 40 years. Despite the lengthy period of living and
working in Gibraltar most Moroccans are still regarded as non-EU
nationals and do not have the right to register as British
citizens.
ENDS
For Further information, please contact: Pauline Doyle on 07976
832 861.
NOTES TO EDITORS:
For more information on this campaign visit:
http://www.unitetheunion.org/campaigns/fixing_the_wrongs_-_40_years_o.aspx
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