Moroccan Families Mark 48 Years Since Mass Expulsion from Algeria

On the morning of Eid al-Adha 1975, as the Muslim world celebrated the Feast of Sacrifice, nearly 45,000 Moroccan families were unceremoniously expelled from Algeria. Moroccan citizens, legally settled sometimes for generations, found themselves on the street overnight, forced to hastily leave the country that had become theirs. Among them, mixed families, former combatants of the Algerian War of Independence, all thrown onto the roads in difficult conditions.

"In the blink of an eye," denounces the Rally, these families were deprived of their homes, their belongings, their rights. Men, women, children, the elderly, were taken to the Moroccan border, stripped of everything, victims of an injustice that will mark them forever.

Despite the weight of the years, the memory of this tragedy remains vivid. Victims, descendants, human rights defenders, all strive to keep the memory of this event alive, to recall the responsibility of the Algerian authorities and to demand justice. Books, films, actions with international bodies such as the United Nations Human Rights Council, maintain the pressure on Algiers. A fight for recognition and reparation, faced with an Algerian regime accused of denial and falsification of history.

The international rally, created in 2021, intends to continue its action in favor of the expelled families. Facilitating family reunification with those who remained in Algeria, mobilizing international public opinion, finally obtaining recognition by Algiers of its responsibility in this drama, these are the stated objectives.

"The arbitrary expulsion of Moroccan citizens from Algeria in 1975 was not an isolated event," the rally affirms. An act that, according to it, is part of a long series of provocations and hostile acts by the Algerian regime towards Morocco. A situation that raises fears for the future of relations between the two countries.