Belgium Begins Repatriation of 1,400 Citizens from Morocco Amid Airport Closures

In addition to these two flights, three others will be operated next week. The Foreign Affairs department specifies that these repatriation operations are taking place in several phases from Casablanca, given the closure of other airports. Similarly, buses have been specially chartered to allow Belgians located all over the country to reach this city.

These repatriated or awaiting repatriation Belgian-Moroccans are part of a list of 1,400 people authorized by the Moroccan authorities to travel for humanitarian, medical or social reasons. However, these repatriation operations have already experienced glitches, reports RTBF. The platform of "Belgian-Moroccans blocked in Morocco" says it has received several alerts from citizens who say they have received a negative response regarding their repatriation to Belgium.

"More than 1,000 negative emails were sent this morning revealing the identity of more than 1,000 people. This is a sign of amateurism and an invasion of people’s privacy that we condemn," denounces the collective. According to this collective, there are people who received a negative repatriation email among the 264 Belgian-Moroccans repatriated on Friday. Other "blunders": children remained stranded in Morocco while one of their parents was repatriated.

The heads of the collective also say that the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Defense apologized on Saturday, and explained that this was due to "a human error in handling the emails".