Belgian Woman Stranded in Morocco After Travel for Wedding Amid Border Closures

Nathalie has a house in Blegny, in the Liège region. She left for Morocco on February 19, and left her three children behind. "She left to prepare a wedding with a Moroccan she had met some time ago. He lives in Morocco, and she used to go see him often," explains her sister-in-law who stayed in Belgium to take care of the children. On site, Nathalie had "an appointment at the embassy on April 1st," and thought she "would take the plane back on April 11th," reports RTL INFO.

In retrospect, Nathalie realizes that she may have misunderstood the terms used by the Belgian government when it talks about leaving the territory except for compelling reasons. Once in Morocco, Nathalie realized that after a period of calm, the cases of contamination had resumed with a vengeance and the authorities had decided to take precautionary measures to fight against the spread of the pandemic. At the beginning of March, flights were suspended "until further notice to and from Belgium".

On site, Nathalie kept hope, thinking that the reopening of borders was imminent. But she is losing patience. Morocco has further tightened measures as part of the month of Ramadan. Even if everything "is going well for her on site" where she is staying with her "future husband", and in Blégny where "cohabitation is good" between the sister-in-law and the children, Nathalie is "demotivated", because she cannot return home. "I have an obligation... my children are in Belgium," she keeps saying.

Even if Morocco lifted its restrictive measures, the problem would not be solved since at the level of Belgium, the ban on non-essential travel took effect on Wednesday, January 27, 2021 and remains in force," explained Karl Lagatie, spokesperson for the FPS Foreign Affairs. He explains that in 2020, Belgium was able to organize the repatriation of thousands of its nationals caught off guard by the preventive measures. But currently, "it’s hard to say that we’re not aware" of the risk of leaving Europe because "the situation is different".

Nathalie must therefore be patient and regularly check the page of the FPS Foreign Affairs website on the situation in Morocco. As soon as the situation changes, she will have to wait for an airline to organize a flight, or find a way to return home.