COVID-19 Fails to Deter Young Moroccans from Risky Mediterranean Crossings

"Coronavirus or not, we’ll go there for our future!", confides Abdelouahed, a 22-year-old Moroccan, to AFP. The tightening of controls due to the virus is far from dampening his desire to go elsewhere. "Each has his own method. I prefer caravans and buses," he says. Like him, many have made this choice.

"I slipped under a truck, I hid in the port [of Tanger Med], but a police dog found me," recounts Ayoub, 25. He says he has tried his luck many times. Abdelkrim, for his part, confesses to having managed to cross the Mediterranean in 2007 and lived in Toledo, Spain. Without papers, he will be turned back in 2017. This 33-year-old young man says he is disillusioned.

Unemployment, precariousness, social exclusion and lack of prospects are all ills that encourage young Moroccans to take the path of illegal immigration. In 2019, nearly 32,500 migrants, from several African countries including Morocco, entered Spain illegally by land or sea; which represents half as many as in 2018.

This European country is being hit hard by the rapid spread of coronavirus. The Spanish authorities have also declared a near-total quarantine and a state of alert for fifteen days. For its part, Morocco has recorded 28 declared cases, including one death and one recovery. On Friday, the kingdom suspended its air and sea links due to the pandemic. However, the transit of trucks and containers continues normally.