A story from the past that reminds of the “slave trade”… 80,000 Moroccans were transferred to France to work in the mines

A French documentary film entitled “Life Before Us” was recently shown, telling the story of 80,000 Moroccans who were deported by France to work in the mines in the north of the country in the sixties and seventies of the last century.

It was reported that the documentary tape, directed by Frederic Lavon, included “the testimonies of many Moroccan workers who were recruited to work in the coal mines in France.”

Presenting this work, which was described as cinematic, Frederic Lafon said that “French employers resorted to Morocco in order to bring labor in the fifties of the last century, but the irony is that few historians have analyzed that proletarian period for an entire people,” pointing out in this context to “The stories of these Moroccans deserve to be told again.”

The director of the documentary pointed out that “these historical events reflect part of the French collective memory that is transmitted from one generation to another,” noting that “the reconstitution of these human stories would create a new historical connection between the past, current and future generations.”

The French director said, during an interview with Radio France International, that he “looked at the facts of the human story in the French newspaper Le Monde, which published two pages on the file,” noting that “about 80,000 Moroccans left the Moroccan country voluntarily in order to search for a source of livelihood.”

Lavon said of these workers that they were “escaping poverty in their mountainous valleys, which prompted the former military, Felix Mora, to propose the idea, with the support of the Moroccan and French authorities, who subjected the workers to a package of strict medical examinations before deporting them to the coal mines in northern France.”

The French director described the long queues of workers as “reminiscent of the slave trade, except that they were completely volunteers,” noting on the other hand that “what is important for the film is to shed light on the workers’ stories away from personal assessments on the subject, which is what the testimonies concluded. She was satisfied with her social choices.

In this context, he wondered, expressing his astonishment by saying: “How were these illiterate parents able to give birth to wonderful children who pursue their higher studies in European universities? It is the main question that prompted me to think about filming the documentary.”