Moroccan Cross-Border Workers Seek Social Security Refunds from Spain

Since the reopening of the borders in May 2022, only Moroccans with a Schengen visa are allowed to enter Melilla to work. However, Regulation 2016/399 of the European Parliament and Council, in its Article 41, stipulates that Moroccan citizens, holders of the F permit (cross-border workers) and residents of the areas of influence of Nador and Tetouan, proving their status and equipped with a valid travel document, "may enter Ceuta and Melilla without a visa, provided they do not spend the night on Spanish territory".

There are 1,310 Moroccan workers living this situation. Most of them are domestic workers. "We are abandoned," complains Ayada, a 51-year-old widow with four children to support in Morocco, to El Español. She says she started going to work in Melilla since 2015. She worked from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in a house. "I had a work permit, but I even went on public holidays. When the border was closed, the lady sent me money four or five times during the first year of the Coronavirus, but she didn’t want me to get a visa to go back to work in Melilla. She told me it was too expensive and she couldn’t afford it," details the fifty-year-old.

The situation of these cross-border workers is critical. "They still receive no aid, not even the ERTE to which they are entitled like any other Spanish or foreign worker in the State; it is discrimination in a democratic country," denounces Abderramán El Fahsi El Mokhtar, a UGT-FICA trade unionist in Melilla. "The issue of cross-border workers generates a lot of problems, but they have the right to be compensated," adds Raúl Carballedo, a human rights lawyer, who is defending 14 cases of these Moroccans in court.

"Cross-border workers did not receive the ERTE, but they paid 24% income tax and social security. Just because we are in North Africa doesn’t mean we are subject to the law of the jungle. The principle of equality of rights applies to everyone in a democratic country," insists Abderramán El Fahsi. "From a legal point of view, all deadlines have been exceeded. Employers do not want to rehire or compensate workers who did not show up, but the fact is that they were blocked in Morocco after the border closure. The issue must be resolved between the government and the entrepreneurs of Melilla," says Javier Valenzuela, general secretary of the UGT in Melilla.