Marrakech Taxi Drivers Accused of Favoring Foreign Tourists Over Locals

Many drivers pass by with an empty taxi, but "show no desire to stop to know the customer’s destination," especially when it comes to Marrakechis, denounce some citizens to Hespress, adding that they prefer to take foreigners. A violation of the texts in force. They refuse "to transport Moroccan clients, considering them as secondary clients as soon as a ’preferred client’ of the professionals of this type of transport, namely a foreigner, appears," they add. A behavior that is developing more and more as we approach the celebration of Eid al-Adha. "These scandalous behaviors of which the small taxi drivers are constantly guilty towards the citizens require now a repressive intervention of the public authorities," estimates Zakaria Bchikri, a human rights activist and civil society actor in Marrakech, explaining that "this problem has intensified due to the preparations for Eid al-Adha, a period marked by a significant increase in activity disrupted by the actions of certain professional drivers."

The activist also denounces these drivers "who refuse a particular trip on the pretext that it does not suit them, although the law obliges them to take the customer where he wishes, within the limits provided for travel by small taxi." "The disturbances affecting" Moroccans "can be attributed to certain drivers, while the anger in Marrakech has indeed become virulent," adds Bchikri. For him, "the discrimination between Moroccan citizens and foreigners, with a preference for European or American clients, represents a humiliating behavior for Moroccans who endure the constraint of waiting a long time for a taxi, ten passing in succession without any of them stopping." "This problem is widely discussed in Marrakech and has intensified with the increase in demand for public transport during this special holiday period," admits Mustapha Chaoun, national general secretary of the Democratic Organization of Transport and Multimodal Logistics.

However, he rejected "the always organized and studied generalization aimed at attacking and demonizing the professional driver to make the public accept transport via applications." Defending his corporation, he assures: "We are all for the moralization of the professional life of taxi drivers, and there are isolated cases that practice these actions denounced by the citizens." Chaoun will add: "If we turn for example to the security and public authorities, we find that the number of complaints is very low, so any disturbance we are talking about is as if we were in an unorganized or anarchic profession." The professional also states that it is necessary to carry out a complete revision of the transport sector to improve the services of taxi drivers. "The campaign aimed at attacking the professional driver whose livelihood is the taxi was also alarmingly in vogue in Casablanca, but it has diminished since the public authorities decided that the granting of licenses for transport via applications would not be done; and the same fate awaits these deliberate defamation campaigns with a certain generalization against the professionals in the sector," he concludes.