Orphanage workers kicked out of Morocco

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Two New Zealanders and their children are to be expelled from Morocco, apparently for being active Christians in an orphanage.

Chris and Tina Broadbent and their children William and Samuel were working at the Village of Hope, (VOH) a children's home in the Middle Atlas mountains of Morocco.

The orphanage's website reported that five foreign staff had been ordered to leave the country, leaving behind 33 orphans.

"They have not told us how long we have left, but it will be between 1 and 3 days," Chris Broadbent said on the orphanage's website. Moroccan authorities had raided the home yesterday.

"The reason given is that the abandoned children in the care of VoH have been proselytised to by us, that we are trying to make them Christian," Mr Broadbent said.

In 2002, the Village of Hope registered with the Moroccan government as an official Christian organisation and received permission to talk about Christianity to the children in their care.

Some of the children had never known another mother, Mr Broadbent said, referring to the orphanage's workers as "foster mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers".

"Watching the children be told by their parents that they had to leave, that they would maybe never see them again, is the most painful thing I have ever witnessed."

- © Fairfax NZ News