Transcultural Psychiatry 0(0) 1–21 ! The Author(s) 2018 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1363461518757798 journals.sagepub.com/home/tps ‘Ayn mika: Traumatic experience, social invisibility, and emotional distress of sub-Saharan women with precarious status in Morocco Abdelwahed Mekki-Berrada Laval University Abstract Morocco has become a permanent transit country for tens of thousands of sub-Saharan migrants heading to Europe. Many of these migrants are women who have a precarious legal status and can no longer reach Europe, whose borders have been considerably securitized since September 11, 2001. They also have no wish to risk their lives again returning south across the Sahara Desert. This paper discusses the results of an exploratory research project conducted in Morocco on the relationships between the sub-Saharan migrant women’s traumatic experiences, social invisibility, and emo- tional distress in the context of a massive securitization of Euro-Mediterranean borders. Keywords emotional distress, Morocco, securitization of Euro-Mediterranean borders, social invisibility, sub-Saharan migrant women, violence In the ongoing tragedy that concerns 4.8 million registered Syrian refugees (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees [UNHCR], 2016), children, women, and men have been experiencing unspeakable personal and social suffering on a scale so considerable that it has been hiding another ongoing tragedy: that of sub-Saharan migrants forced to leave their countries of origin because of armed conflicts, per- secutions, and other forms of organized and political violence, but not allowed to reach Europe (Belguendouz, 2005, 2009; Collyer, 2007; de Haas, 2007, 2008, 2014), their dreamed-of ‘‘El Dorado.’’ The findings presented in this paper are based Article Corresponding author: Abdelwahed Mekki-Berrada, Department of Anthropology, Laval University, Quebec City, Canada. Email: abdelwahed.mekki-berrada@ant.ulaval.ca