Beach Chaos: Illegal Schemes Ruin Summer for Moroccan Tourists and Locals

Closure of free parking lots planned near beach entrances and other tourist areas, imposition of arbitrary rates in exchange for parking cars, imposition of the rental of chairs and umbrellas. Practices completely devoid of any legal legitimacy are observed every year during the summer season. To the point of ruining the experience of summer visitors and tourists. "What is deplorable is no longer the annual recurrence of this phenomenon, but its flagrant worsening from year to year," said Bouazza Kharrati, president of the Moroccan Federation of Consumer Rights, to Achkayen.

According to him, the weakness of the bodies responsible for controlling the sector, in particular the ministry in charge of the tourism sector and the elected local councils, is the main reason for the recurrence of this phenomenon. "Local authorities do not intervene in a preventive manner before the start of the summer to protect the public domain against its illegal exploitation, content with interventions during the peak of the summer season, a period when it is already too late, because all the coastal assets and their surroundings are already occupied," he stressed, noting that the consumer, and more specifically the employees and low-ranking civil servants, have become a cash cow exposed to exploitation, greed and monopoly by all.

Kharrati deplores: "This category, whose monthly salaries are extremely limited, is hit hard by the dizzying rise in fuel prices, raw materials and foodstuffs. And when it wants to go to the beach, it is confronted with a series of predatory practices, from parking to the mandatory payment of chairs and umbrellas." For him, it is necessary to confer a sacred character on the public domain, to impose severe fines and to prosecute any person appropriating a public property. "The problem does not lie in the legislative aspect, which only suffers from formal shortcomings, but in the effective application of the laws in force, which totally prohibit any exploitation of the public domain," he specified.

He also explains that the worsening of the phenomenon of the occupation of the public domain is linked to the worsening of the unemployment rate. "Therefore, the eradication of this phenomenon, in addition to the repressive aspect, requires the creation of opportunities for a decent life for unemployed youth," he deduced, considering that "it is unacceptable to solve the serious problem of unemployment at the expense of the rights of the ordinary consumer, already overwhelmed by levies, bank loans and the catastrophic cost of living, because it is not his responsibility."