Moroccan Expats in Spain Face Economic Hardship Amid COVID-19 Crisis

The closure of borders and the suspension of all links between the two countries since March 12 have forced a large part of the Moroccan expatriates to stop their activities due to the mandatory confinement.

Like the economic crisis of 2009-2013, the report paints negative prospects for seasonal workers in particular, noting that the impact of the crisis is likely to extend beyond the period of the state of emergency.

To support this hypothesis, the report was based on the case of 6,500 Moroccan women employed in the strawberry fields in Huelva. 9,000 other workers are still stuck in Morocco.

Unemployment should also hit two other fragile sectors, namely construction and catering, due to the loss of work permits, the report pointed out.

The study did not fail to raise the drastic drop in remittances from Moroccan expatriates, whose contribution to the Moroccan GDP was estimated at 6% in 2018, or 662 million euros, according to the Bank of Spain.