Hundreds of Europeans Stranded in Morocco Await Repatriation Flights

Arrived in late August in Morocco from France, Jaouad and Hajer Ait Ameur have been blocked for a month and are waiting to be repatriated. "It’s extremely difficult. We call the embassy and consulates every day. We feel like we’re at the bottom of the ocean," confides the Parisian couple to LCI. Like them, several foreign nationals (French, Italians, Belgians...) find themselves in the same situation since the suspension of flights.

Morocco has organized special flights for these thousands of French nationals (20,000 as of November 30), but Jaouad and Hajer Ait Ameur, having arrived by boat with their vehicle, could not be repatriated as they did not want to separate from it. "It’s impossible to leave without it. It’s my means of work," says Jaouad Ait Ameur, a journalist by profession.

To read: France to Repatriate Citizens Stranded in Morocco via Ferry to Marseille

Another couple, Nadia Pion and her husband, Nicolas, who arrived in Morocco on October 27, cannot leave the kingdom without their caravan. "We put all our savings into it. And then, where to put it? We can’t afford to rent a garage for months," Nadia specifies. And to add: "We have received no response from the embassy and the consulate is passing the buck. We feel taken hostage. We are French nationals, with a French passport and there is no solution. It’s amazing!"

For the couple, "it’s unfair and incomprehensible" to see that commercial maritime links continue and that "it is so complicated to charter a boat to let us leave". The French embassy has indicated on its website that land and sea borders with Morocco are suspended "until further notice". For their part, the French authorities promise to engage discussions with Morocco in order to find a solution to the problem. The two couples, with their backs to the wall, fear that their tourist visas, planned for 3 months, will expire before their repatriation.