COVID-19 Border Closures Separate Moroccan Families as Summer Reunions Canceled

Used to spending their summer vacations in Morocco, Moroccans residing abroad will not be able to reunite with their loved ones this year. The reason is the closure of borders due to the Covid-19 crisis, writes the newspaper Le Parisien.

For Wassila, a young Moroccan living in France, used to going to Morocco every two months where her parents live, the situation is unbearable. Moreover, her 18-month-old daughter Liliane has remained in Morocco with her grandparents since March, to whom she had left her to come back and settle an urgent situation in France.

With the health crisis that has led to the closure of borders and the cancellation of flights, she found herself stranded in France, far from her daughter. All attempts to join her daughter or even "mobilize an escort or a stewardess" to bring her back have been in vain.

"I’ll do any analysis they want, a quarantine, tests, anything they want but let me go there," she says.

Finally, Wassila was able to book her tickets. Her flight to Fez is scheduled for July 13. Pending her departure, and dreading a cancellation of the flight, she goes through the news channels every morning, in search of good news about Morocco.