Some 15 years ago an earlier ICTUR investigation had taken place, resulting in the publication ‘Moroccan workers in Gibraltar’ (1995) which criticised a series of failures to respect international standards. ICTUR officers were dismayed to discover that the situation in Gibraltar remained seriously out of step with the minimum standards required under international law and agreed to visit the Rock and carry out a further study.

In February 2009 a delegation from ICTUR travelled to Gibraltar to investigate the situation.

History and background
For many decades now Gibraltar has been largely dependent upon the services of a large number of migrant workers in order to support industries associated with the military dockyards. Prior to 1969 the majority of these migrant workers were Spanish citizens, who crossed into Gibraltar on a daily basis from Southern Spain. In 1969 the Spanish authorities closed the border leaving a strategic military facility facing a severe crisis with shortages of several thousand workers who could not be replaced locally. In desperation, the Gibraltarian state and the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence turned to the Kingdom of Morocco, just a few miles across the Straits. Thousands of Moroccan workers were recruited and encouraged to travel to Gibraltar and to take up employment with the Public Services Agency which managed construction, property and service operations around the naval dockyard. Within nine months of the 1969 border closure the Moroccan migrant workforce consisted of at least three thousand workers.

For almost 40 years – and in some cases longer that this – Moroccan migrant workers have played an essential role in supporting the economy of Gibraltar by maintaining the dockyards. During the height of the cold war period funding from the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence represented 60 percent of Gibraltar’s GDP. Despite paying taxes throughout this period, the great majority of the migrant workers are by various measures unable to benefit equally from many of the entitlements of which Gibraltarians may take advantage, such as social security entitlements, education for their children, and health care for their families. They are barred from the subsidised public housing used by Gibraltarians and can live only in expensive private sector rental accommodation (if they can afford it, which many cannot) or in badly-maintained, dirty, infested, unsafe and overcrowded ‘hostels’ that a member of our delegation branded “the disgrace on the Rock”. During their residence in Gibraltar (which for some covers their entire working lives of 40 years or more) the migrants have been politically disenfranchised - their attempts to register on the electoral roll have been denied because they ‘are Moroccan nationals’.

In spite of their immense contribution to the economic, social and cultural life of Gibraltar over a period of almost 40 years it is the unfortunate reality that the vast majority of Moroccan migrant workers live in shocking conditions and complain of barriers to their fundamental human rights.

A booming economy
Whatever the reasons for the shameful treatment of Moroccan workers in Gibraltar it is clear that a weak economy can’t be the excuse: the enclave is booming, as an article published in The Guardian made clear. Among the issues identified by Guardian journalist Giles Tremlett during his recent visit to Gibraltar were the following:

• Gibraltar is actively trying to attract ‘high net-worth individuals’ to take up residency;

• Sleek new high-rise apartment blocks for ‘rich foreigners’ line the harbour;

• The economy is booming - chief minister Peter Caruana claimed: "If we were a sovereign state we would be 13th in the world in GDP per capita”.

‘Good times on Main Street for thriving Gibraltar’, published in The Guardian, Tuesday 24 March 2009

What We Found
Our investigation revealed five main headings of complaint:

• Family re-unification: Moroccan migrant workers told us their families are only allowed to visit them during the summer. The workers find it difficult to visit their families due to the poor ferry service linking Gibraltar and Morocco. As non-EU citizens they are denied access to fast and efficient Spanish ferries from nearby ports. Local politicians told ICTUR that they were well aware of these hardships.

• Civil rights: the migrants have paid taxes and contributed to society for many years: in some cases for their entire working lives over periods of 40 years or even more. As non-EU nationals throughout this period they have been denied the right to vote. Many migrant workers told us that they have attempted to register but have had their applications turned down on the basis of nationality.

• Housing: Moroccan workers are denied access to affordable public housing, which is subsidised and occupied by Gibraltarians. Moroccan workers must either live at one of the horrendous hostels, which are inhabited for the most part by the low-paid, the old, sick and impoverished or pay high private sector rental fees, considerably in excess of the sums that Gibraltarian workers pay for their much higher-quality subsidised public housing.

• Public services and welfare benefits: migrant workers’ families are barred from access to some public services when visiting them in Gibraltar. Migrant workers themselves face barriers and problems in accessing hospitals in Spain and the UK.

• Naturalisation: Moroccan migrant workers resident in Gibraltar for long periods of time (including some resident for 40 years or more) have struggled to obtain naturalisation. The people we spoke with complained of slow, arbitrary and discriminatory application processes for citizenship. All of the people we spoke with, including local political leaders, were aware of ‘talk’ or ‘a rumour’ that there existed arbitrary, unpublished and unofficial policies that are applied to applications.

Meetings held
The District Office of Unite provided every facility to support ICTUR’s visit and organised an itinerary of meetings with the Moroccan workers’ associations, Unite officials and representatives of the GGCA trade union, as well as arranging a series of invaluable meetings with political leaders.

We wish to express our gratitude to Joe Holliday, Deputy Chief Minister of Gibraltar; Joe Bossano, Leader of the Opposition; and Keith Azzopardi, Leader of the PDP, for hosting meetings with the ICTUR delegation on 20 February and for engaging with the delegation in full and frank discussions on all aspects of the inquiry.

Unite also organised a public meeting to which members of the Moroccan community were invited to express their views. The participation in this meeting of some 500 members of the Moroccan community (more than 50 percent of the Moroccan population of Gibraltar) demonstrated the immense level of dissatisfaction that the community feels towards the current situation.

Indications of progress
We are pleased to be able to report that, despite the serious problems, there have been some genuine reforms that have improved conditions in some areas. The Moroccan Workers Association told us that the new government had, since 1996, been more sympathetic to their concerns and had stopped some deportations but also that the fundamental problems remain.

Strategy
The Gibraltar District Office of Unite has asked ICTUR not only to carry out a research and fact-finding mission but also to support the union with the development of a multi-faceted campaign to try to effect real change for the Moroccan workers. In association with the local Unite officers ICTUR has begun to develop a strategically chosen series of objectives that will include utilising legal, political and media channels.

Legal: ICTUR is in the process of producing a report that will analyse levels of compliance between the situation we discovered in Gibraltar and all appropriate regional and international laws, treaties and conventions. ICTUR will make an assessment and recommendations on the prospects for commencing successful legal actions in respect of these instruments.

Political: Working with its local partners ICTUR will develop a political campaign aiming to bring the situation of the Moroccan workers to the attention of local politicians and Members of the European Parliament as well as raising the issue with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, who’s duty it is to ensure compliance by British Overseas Dependencies with the minimum requirements of international law.

Media: The local press showed considerable interest in the story with the Gibraltar Chronicle covering both the visit of the ICTUR delegation and the public meeting called by Unite and the migrant workers’ associations in articles appearing on 14th and 21st February and again on 16th March reporting the contents of an ICTUR letter published in The Guardian newspaper. The issue was also taken up in the local Panorama newspaper. On 28 March, following discussions with ICTUR, The Guardian ran a feature article on Gibraltar’s ‘institutional discrimination’ against the Moroccan migrant worker community.