HIBAPRESS – Oujda
The assault on a number of female employees at the "Lazari" urban health center in Oujda on Monday, January 5th, sparked a wave of anger and condemnation within the trade union and professional circles in the Oriental region.
In this regard, the regional office of the National Health Federation (Moroccan Labor Union) issued a strongly worded statement, in which it condemned the absence of security protection for health workers and the administration's evasion of its responsibility in supporting the victims. According to the union's statement, female employees of the Lazari health center were subjected to a heinous assault by two persons while performing their professional duties. The regional office described this behavior as "criminal," stressing that it not only affects the dignity of health workers, but also exposes their physical and psychological safety to a real danger in a work environment that has become characterized by "fragility." The National Health Federation, in the same statement, expressed its strong condemnation of what it described as "administrative negligence," as no support was provided to the assaulted employees, whether inside their workplace or during the stages of filing the complaint with the judicial police. The union linked the increase in cases of violence with what it called the "inciting speech" of some officials, which aims to mislead public opinion and hold health workers responsible for the structural imbalances that the sector is experiencing, such as the severe shortage of human resources, the lack of medicines and medical equipment, and the absence of basic treatment requirements. In a related context, the union announced a line of urgent demands addressed to the supervisory authorities, the most prominent of which are opening an urgent investigation: and arranging legal penalties against the aggressors, fortifying institutions: equipping the health center with surveillance cameras and immediately enhancing security, and providing working conditions: ensuring a decent work environment that provides all the necessary tools and medical supplies, and administrative responsibility: holding the supervisory administration fully responsible for the repetition of these incidents as a result of "failure to provide protection".
