Moroccan farms turn to West African migrants to plug labour deficit

Deep in Morocco’s fertile heartlands, pickup trucks carrying migrants from sub-Saharan Africa roll past a sea of plastic greenhouses producing fresh fruit and vegetables for supermarkets across Europe and West Africa.

Some of these workers, largely from French-speaking West Africa, intended to head to Europe but are now putting that off to take up work in Morocco and plug a growing gap in domestic farm labour.

The trend underscores Morocco’s changing role in international migration as it flows into more of a destination than a transit…