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Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24706863
The heavy-lifting 'mule women' of Melilla
By Linda Pressly BBC World Service, Melilla
They are known as the mule women of Melilla. Everyday they carry heavy loads across the border between the Spanish enclave and Morocco. Melilla is an important entry point for goods into North Africa - and if the women can carry them, they can be imported into Morocco duty-free...
...Many of the women who work as porteadoras are divorced or separated like Latifa, single mothers providing for their families. Life is difficult for them in Morocco's traditional society, and often this is the only work they can get. Some of them make three or four trips a day from Barrio Chino, carrying up to 80kg.
Rates of pay vary and the women complain they must give bribes to the Moroccan guards...
..."These are women who are risking their lives - there have been deaths as a consequence of this physical labour. It's carried out in conditions of semi-slavery," says Emilio Guerra, from the Union Progreso y Democracia political party. "What we would like is that they work under a concrete set of rules in conditions that aren't precarious..."
The heavy-lifting 'mule women' of Melilla
By Linda Pressly BBC World Service, Melilla
They are known as the mule women of Melilla. Everyday they carry heavy loads across the border between the Spanish enclave and Morocco. Melilla is an important entry point for goods into North Africa - and if the women can carry them, they can be imported into Morocco duty-free...
...Many of the women who work as porteadoras are divorced or separated like Latifa, single mothers providing for their families. Life is difficult for them in Morocco's traditional society, and often this is the only work they can get. Some of them make three or four trips a day from Barrio Chino, carrying up to 80kg.
Rates of pay vary and the women complain they must give bribes to the Moroccan guards...
..."These are women who are risking their lives - there have been deaths as a consequence of this physical labour. It's carried out in conditions of semi-slavery," says Emilio Guerra, from the Union Progreso y Democracia political party. "What we would like is that they work under a concrete set of rules in conditions that aren't precarious..."