The Weight Of The World On Our Backs

It's 9 am, and despite the early hour, the blistering sun was already making life harder for the hundreds of Moroccan women, known as the "Mule Ladies", who make a living carrying huge bundles of Spanish merchandise, across the Barrio Chino border, destined for Morocco's domestic market.

For Fatma, a 70 years old porter, the day had started at 3 am. For the past 20 years, the ritual has always been the same. She got up in the middle of the night in her brick hut, cooked her family what little food they had, and got on the first bus headed to Melilla, one of Spain's enclaves in the Northern African coast. She needed to arrive before dawn if she wanted to beat the crowds. Only the first ones to arrive are able to get the bundles, and the competition is fierce. On a good day, they might make up to 5 euros for each crossing, but most people don't earn more than 10 euros a day. It's a meager pay for carrying bundles that can weigh up to 100 kilos.

The routine is straightforward. From Monday to Thursday, trucks loaded with products arrive at the dusty border control, accompanied by a swarm of men and women that come running behind it, screaming and fighting. From the harassment by police on both sides of the border, to the regular brawls that happen when the bundles are scarce, violence is a constant in a porter's life.

A porter heads for the line overseen by Spanish Police, before making the cross into Morocco at the Beni Enzar border in Melilla.
A truck with Spanish merchandise unloads its cargo, for the porters to take across the Beni Enzar border inMelilla, and into Morocco.
The bundles can weigh up to 100 kilos, and the average pay for one trip across the border is 4 euros.
A porter walks through a muddy field to get in line to pass into Morocco at the Beni Enzar border in Melilla.
Porters wait in line at the Beni Enzar border, so they can pass into Morocco.
A porter with her back bent due to the weight of the merchandise in the Beni Enzar border in Melilla.
This type of contraband is not frowned upon by the Spanish Officials. It represents one third of the economy of this enclave, and moves 1.400 million euros in imports every year.
A porter prepares a bundle that weighs over 70 kilos in the Barrio Chino border. She can't carry it on her back so she resorts to a makeshift skateboard so it can be taken into Morocco. Many women cover their faces out of shame.
Porters struggle to take the bundles, which can weigh up to 100 kilos, up a hill in the Barrio Chino border, Melilla.
Usually Fatma takes the bus to return to her brick house in Celuan, Morocco, but today she was too tired. She decided to pay for the taxi ride home. "I am out of strength. I have toiled all my life, and now I am this way. Too sick to work."
Fatma lives in a slum in Nador province, where she has been for 20 years.
Fatma is greeted by her son's wife when she gets home. "We built this house with discarded bricks from a nearby factory, they were going to throw them, so we took the ones they couldn't sell" she says.
"When I die, I'll go straight to heaven. Why is God going to punish me any longer? He hasn't given me anything my whole life, only suffering."
"A neighbour gave me a few grains of cereal, so I made this bread. At night, we eat it with tomato. It is the only food we have"
One of her daughters is working in Meekness, and has left her with a grandchild to raise. The girl is eight years old and is called Ferdhaus, which means Paradise in Arabic. "I have ruined my health, so that my children, and their children could have a better life. But it was all for nothing."