Morocco’s Lost Generation: A Scathing Report on Youth Trapped Between Unemployment, Addiction, and Exclusion as the State Fails Its Future

Morocco’s Lost Generation: A Scathing Report on Youth Trapped Between Unemployment, Addiction, and Exclusion as the State Fails Its Future

✍️ BY: Dr. Hana Saada

Algiers, Algeria | On the occasion of International Youth Day, a scathing report by the Moroccan League for the Defense of Human Rights has painted a bleak portrait of Moroccan youth—one marked by despair, exclusion, and systemic neglect. What emerges is not merely a statistical snapshot, but a national indictment: an entire generation left to navigate the quicksand of unemployment, addiction, marginalization, and disillusionment.

Behind the veneer of development rhetoric, the hard truth is unmistakable. Nearly 67% of young Moroccans who work are trapped in the informal sector, stripped of stability and dignity. Each year, more than 350,000 young men and women enter the labor market, only to compete for a meager 240,000 new jobs, a structural gap that exposes the paralysis of Morocco’s economic policies. Even the highly educated are not spared; their diplomas too often become worthless paper in a labor market indifferent to their aspirations.

The political domain offers no solace. With only 20% of youth registered to vote, Moroccan institutions have become barren landscapes where the voice of youth is silenced, their representation erased, their potential squandered. The result is a toxic cocktail of political alienation and civic distrust—a void where opportunistic populism festers.

Education, once touted as a vehicle for social mobility, has itself become a battlefield of broken promises. Overcrowded classrooms, rampant school dropouts, underfunded vocational programs, and a misalignment with market demands have condemned countless young Moroccans to a cycle of frustration and stagnation. Universities, plagued by favoritism and structural inefficiencies, fail to serve as engines of opportunity, instead deepening the malaise.

The consequences are harrowing. Addiction is rampant, with nearly 10% of youth between 15 and 24 admitting to cannabis use, while hospitalizations linked to hard drugs have surged by 47% in just five years. Suicide rates rise in tandem with untreated mental health crises. Meanwhile, violent crime and incarceration rates among youth reveal a society increasingly incapable of protecting its own future.

Migration emerges as the ultimate verdict on the state’s failure. In 2024 alone, Moroccan authorities thwarted more than 78,000 illegal migration attempts—a staggering figure that underscores a tragic reality: for many young Moroccans, the dream of survival lies not in their homeland, but in risking death at sea.

The report’s conclusion is blunt yet urgent: Morocco’s youth are not a liability but a squandered asset. Unless the state abandons its cosmetic approaches and embarks on genuine structural reform—investing in education, creating dignified employment, empowering youth voices, and confronting the scourges of addiction and exclusion—the country risks condemning its brightest generation to perpetual despair.

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