Elderly Moroccan Woman with Pacemaker Stranded in Ceuta Since 2020 Border Closure

Khaddouj Bayessif, who had left Tetouan to spend a few days with her daughter in Ceuta, found herself blocked in the city after the closure of the borders for health reasons. 83 years old, Khaddouj Bayessif wears a pacemaker and takes a lot of medication. In Ceuta, her situation has worsened. "She can’t walk. To go out, we move her in a wheelchair," explains her grandson, Reda, who works and lives in Malaga, to El Faro de Ceuta.

Her 50-year-old daughter, Reda’s mother, busy with household chores and caring for family members, barely has time to communicate with her. For a year, the grandmother has been unable to access her pension deposited in a Moroccan bank. "We don’t know if this money is still being transferred," wonders Reda, who would like to take his grandmother to see her doctor in Morocco.

"I’m very afraid that her situation will get worse and that she will spend her last days alone in Ceuta, without her family... There would be a lot of problems because she is not a resident," he says before continuing: "I don’t know if we will have to take her to see a doctor in Ceuta. I don’t have much money, neither does my mother."

Mansouri adds that he has contacted the Moroccan embassy to request assistance in repatriating his mother. Without success. Desperate, he is trying to register her on the new repatriation list opened by the Ceuta government delegation so that she can benefit from a humanitarian corridor.