Moroccan Expats Brace for Port Delays as Summer Travel Season Approaches

Several thousand Moroccans will not soon forget the last summer of 2018. This is particularly the case of Saïd, who came from France and was forced to spend twelve hours in his car, more precisely, on the night of Friday, August 23 to Saturday, August 24, 2018, to cross the few kilometers separating the exit of the Melloussa highway from the entrance to the Tanger Med passenger port, reports L’économiste.

Saïd’s example is far from being an isolated case, as several tens of thousands of Moroccans had encountered difficulties. Indeed, Tanger Med, which represents the largest passenger port in Morocco, experienced the biggest overflow in its history. This, in turn, caused the waiting times to become endless, pushing the passengers to the end of their tether.

While the port had managed to transport 39,000 passengers on Tuesday, August 20, Wednesday, August 21 saw the flow climb dizzily and reach 53,000 passengers and more than 10,500 vehicles. This unprecedented flow of cars caused a traffic jam that stretched for 10 kilometers on the Melloussa highway, the media noted, adding that it took until Saturday, August 24 for the situation to come back under control.

According to the Director of the Passenger Port, Hassan Abkary, the desire of a large part of the MREs to postpone their vacations and stay until the end of the Feast of the Sacrifice and the month of August justifies this situation. Indeed, the issued tickets, which were mostly "Open" tickets, were not confirmed.

Also, he argues, faced with the saturation of the other ports in the region such as that of Nador in the Oriental, the latecomers had fallen back on Tanger Med. And another reason for the situation, the inability of the Spanish port of Algeciras to keep up with the pace has led to traffic jams in the course of the operation.