French Tourist Stranded in Morocco for a Month Amid COVID-19 Border Closures

"The first week, it was funny. But now, it’s been a month. [...] It’s hard psychologically, financially and my family is worried, knowing that I’m alone here," Denis Ferrero, contacted by phone, told the newspaper Le Dauphiné. A resident of Saint-Chaffrey, he had gone to Morocco for a three-week vacation. Since the closure of the kingdom’s borders on March 13 and the repatriation that is slow to organize through the Quai d’Orsay, the Frenchman finds himself stranded in Marrakech.

"There have only been three flights to repatriate the French stranded in Morocco. We are still hundreds. I registered on the consulate’s list via the Ariane website [a website under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, editor’s note], but no news," says Denis Ferrero.

"When the King of Morocco announced containment measures and the closure of borders, I tried to bring forward my departure - I was supposed to leave on April 1st - but it was not possible to get a flight," he continues. "And I didn’t want to wait around at the airport." According to Denis Ferrero, the repatriation issue is also explained by the presence of many French people with a second home in the kingdom.

He assures that confinement in Morocco is going rather well, but he only wants one thing: to return to France to join his family.