Bouznika’s beach cabins were due to be evacuated: government suspends everything

The owners can temporarily breathe a sigh of relief. In a letter addressed to its members, the president of the Bouznika Plage Association (ABP), Ahmed Hakimi, announced that the evacuation orders received in recent weeks should now be considered “without effect.”

The suspension follows an exchange held on Thursday, August 27, between the association and the Ministry of Equipment and Water, reports Le360. The final decision on the fate of the structures will, however, rest with the head of government.

Between mid-July and mid-August, bailiffs had served formal notices on the occupants of around 300 villas and cabins. They were required to vacate the plots before September 15 and return them to their original condition.

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In the event of refusal, the administration threatened to initiate administrative and legal proceedings that could go as far as intervention by the public authorities. According to the residents, eliminating all occupation meant demolishing the structures themselves before returning the land.

The formal notices provided for neither compensation nor a rehousing solution. Some temporary occupancy permits, granted for twenty years, expired on December 31, 2014.

The status of the land at the heart of the conflict

For the administration, the residents are merely operators of plots belonging to the public maritime domain. They allegedly built or continued occupying the sites without individual land titles or a still-valid authorization.

The Bouznika Plage Association disputes this version. It maintains that a topographical study places the villas and cabins on land titles 460/R and 1854/R, which allegedly belong to the private domain of the State and not to the public maritime domain. According to the association, a court-ordered expert assessment confirmed this delineation.

The distinction is decisive. If the land belongs to the private domain of the State, the residents could request regularization or purchase it. If it falls under the public maritime domain, their continued presence becomes much more difficult legally.

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The standoff did not begin this summer. Some owners had already received similar letters in 2018 and 2019. The expired authorizations and the exact status of the plots have fueled discussions with the administration since 2014, Médias24 also recalls.

The suspension therefore means neither that the cabins have been regularized nor that their demolition has been definitively abandoned. It merely blocks the evacuation scheduled for September 15, pending the head of government’s decision on whether the operation should resume, be modified or abandoned.