Diabetic Spanish Girl, 11, Pleads for Return to Melilla from Morocco Amid Border Closure

The young girl, Malak B., does not understand that she is forced to go to a port in France when she is just a few minutes away from Melilla, after being blocked with her family in Nador due to the closure of the Moroccan borders because of the covid-19 crisis.

"I am diabetic and I need insulin. In addition, I have already missed vaccination appointments, kidney and eye check-ups," she explains in a handwritten letter.

She adds that while "insulin is available in Morocco, it is expensive, not the same brand and could have other effects," before specifying that in addition to the insulin acquired in Melilla at a lower cost thanks to social security, she "needs sensors every two weeks, seven needles per day and strips," which are expensive in Morocco when her family is "without income".

After four months stuck in Morocco, she is asking for a "humanitarian corridor" to be able to return home to Melilla, just behind the border, a few kilometers away. "We don’t even have money to eat and they ask us to go to France and pay for the covid-19 analysis," she laments.

"I want to return to my life, at home and with my friends. I have been in Melilla for 11 years and I have never left the city for more than a month. I want Spain to give us a solution," concludes Malak B.