Service Civil International

“Escaping to love and to be”, a documentary about the situation of LGBTI+ people in Morocco

SCI Catalunya in cooperation with Catalan Commission for refugees and La Directa (an alternative media) produced a documentary to talk about the LGBTI resistance in Morocco and also the problems for the asylum seekers

Nowadays, there are more than 70 countries where the homosexuality is penalised. In Morocco, the 489 article of the constitution punishes the relations between people of the same sex with prison and fines (120-1200 dirhams). At the same time, although there is no information about it, transexual people in Morocco suffer from prosecution and discrimination too. 

Most of LGBTI people from Morocco live secretly due to their sexuality, and many of them ask for international protection from countries like Spain, or cities like Barcelona. However, the asylum system is not responding to this need, and most of the applications are denied. In 2018 in Spain, 3 out of 4 applications were rejected, and 78.000 are kept with no-answer. 

With this project, made by journalists of La Directa in cooperation with Catalan Commission for refugees and SCI Catalunya and with the support of  the European Union, we try to focus on the violation of human rights of LGBTI community, to give visibility to their resistance networks in Morocco, and also to denounce the obstacles they find when they ask for international protection. 

You can watch the entire documentary here.