Moroccan Beaches Under Siege: Consumer Groups Declare War on Illegal Parasol Rentals

The Moroccan Federation for Consumer Protection intends to carry out sustained initiatives to alert and call on the local authorities concerned to intervene in order to free up the public domain on the beaches. This summer marks "the declaration of war against these practices that exhaust Moroccan vacationers," said the vice-president of the Moroccan Federation for Consumer Protection to Hespress. The federation plans to send correspondence to Saaïd Amzazi, wali of the Souss-Massa region and governor of the prefecture of Agadir Ida-Outanane.

According to the latter, the current summer has seen "the persistence of the same sufferings, the practices of occupation of the public domain on the beaches continuing despite the recurrent calls for control and the liberation of these spaces every year." "In some cities, like Tangier, there is information about the intervention of the authorities to free up the public domain on the beaches; this is an approach that should be generalized to all regions of Morocco," he said, adding that the Federation’s actions against these practices will also extend to "beach guards." Their actions contribute to forging a negative image in the Moroccan citizen, and he renews his call to the authorities concerned to act in order to put an end to these recurrent phenomena every summer.

The president of the Moroccan Association for the Defense of Consumer Rights agrees. The summer "has been marked by the persistence of manifestations of exploitation of the public domain on the beaches by the owners of parasols," he said, adding that this practice "is totally illegal and in no way falls within the prerogatives of the municipalities; it requires the intervention of the caids to free up the public domain." According to him, the continuation of these practices constitutes a burden for Moroccan vacationers, and this, in a recurrent way every year.