Morocco rejects claim that detainees are denied medical treatment

Morocco’s General Delegation to the Penitentiary Administration and Reinsertion (DGAPR) has rejected reports that detainees in the country’s prisons are being denied medical treatment, leading to a high prisoner mortality rate.

The DGAPR denied all allegations of “negligence” of detainees on the part of the prisons’ administration. Claims about consequential mortality rates are “false”, it insisted, while emphasising its willingness to cooperate with information on the deaths recorded by the prison authorities so that it meets the objective of “transparency” with public opinion and the media.

According to the delegation, two deaths per thousand detainees were recorded in 2017, which, for the group, represents a much lower rate compared with the mortality rate for non-prisoners, which accounts for five deaths per thousand citizens. Seventy-seven per cent of these deaths occurred in public hospitals and seven per cent while prisoners were travelling to the hospital to receive medical attention. Deaths within prison medical units accounted for over eight per cent of the total.

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The DGAPR also emphasised that every prisoner suffering from illness receives appropriate medical attention through direct or contractual employment of medical specialists in coordination with the health department.

The prison authorities in Morocco have come under fire in recent months over the treatment of prisoners arrested during the Rif protests. Many have claimed that they were tortured whilst detained, which the authorities have countered by deploying medical examiners to check the prisoners for signs of torture.

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