Marrakech Officials Reconsider Taxi Route Restrictions Amid Driver Protests

The coordination of trade unions composed of the General Union of Moroccan Workers, the Democratic General Union of Moroccan Workers and the Moroccan Union of Labor held a meeting with the Wali of the Marrakech-Safi region, Farid Chourak, to discuss the prefectural decision to establish specific itineraries for taxis coming from outside the city. According to a union source, the purpose was to examine the relevance of the prefectural decision and the "suffering" it causes for taxi drivers, as well as to explain the reasons for its rapid adoption, reports Achkayen.

The Wali "understood" the issue of the itineraries, and mentioned the "need to review them," adds the same source, noting that the services of the wilaya of the Marrakech-Safi region will nevertheless apply what is stipulated in Article 2 of the prefectural decision, which prohibits taxis with a starting point in other provinces and prefectures from transporting passengers within the urban perimeter.

To read:

The prefectural decision aims to "organize" the circulation of taxis and to determine their waiting areas. It requires taxi drivers coming from cities such as Casablanca, Fez, Agadir and Safi to park at the Bab Doukkala bus station, while those coming from the Tahnaout or Ourika road must stop at the Arsat El Maach station. It also prohibits these taxis from transporting passengers within the urban perimeter of Marrakech.

Article 3 of the decision stipulates a series of strict sanctions against offenders, including the withdrawal of the authorization, the trust card, as well as the impounding of the vehicle, while Article 4 specifies that the offender will bear all the costs and consequences resulting from the impounding of the taxi by the municipal services.

This decision had provoked the anger of taxi drivers. In the eyes of a member of the general secretariat of the Union of Democratic Transport and Multimodal Logistics, the prefectural decision is detrimental to their interests and deprives them of their right to work freely. This decision prevents drivers from taking their clients to their final destinations, particularly Marrakech-Ménara airport, and forces them to drop off their passengers at Bab Doukkala, he explained, accusing certain unions, particularly the General Union of Moroccan Workers, of being behind this decision in order to create "war and unrest" within the sector.