March 8, 2010.

Today, 21 ex-patriot orphanage workers in Morocco were forced to leave their homes and 31 orphans behind as police escorted them onto a bus, eye witnesses say. It is part of a massive deportation of foreign workers taking place in Morocco over the last two days. Approximately 35 workers have been expelled from cities all over the country since this weekend, and none have been given a reason as to why they are being deported.

The orphanage, Ain Leuh, is located in the mid-Atlas mountains of Morocco. Another nearby orphanage, the Children's Haven, has been under investigation on their facility by Moroccan police for five days. Both children's homes have functioned with the permission of the Moroccan government, but now the authorities are sending home those acting as parents, leaving the children alone as they scream and cry as they watch their families get torn apart and they begin life without parents once again.

An eye witness reports, "The investigation at the Children's Haven involved many hours of sitting with the local police as they filled out papers about each person at the Haven and we were made to sign them. Workers have been assured several times that everything is going to be okay in the end of this investigaton." Both homes were run by volunteers who took in Moroccan children who were abandoned by their parents. After workers from the Ain Leuh home, Village of Hope, were deported, the Children's Haven employee writes, "The Haven could easily be next. It almost seems obvious that we will be!"

The purging of foreign workers in Morocco over the last couple of days is said to be the order of the new Minister of Justice, Mohamed Naciri.