Moroccan Migrants Pay Steep Price to Flee COVID-19 in Spain

Return to the country or stay in Spain and succumb to the effects of Covid-19, the choice is quickly made by Moroccan illegal immigrants. A few months earlier, they had taken a huge risk to reach Europe.

Fearing for their lives now, they have fled the Covid-19 pandemic by taking the reverse path to return illegally to the country, while circumventing the restrictions imposed by the authorities of the two countries.

According to the newspaper El País, young Moroccans divided between two inflatable boats have left the Spanish coast bound for Morocco, after paying more than double (5,000 euros against 400 or 1,000 usually), both for the return crossing and for the outward journey. Their boats are supposed to land on a beach in Larache.

According to the same media, human traffickers are showing extreme flexibility and adaptability in their criminal activities, now also organizing the trips of Moroccan migrants, in an irregular situation and fleeing Covid-19, in the opposite direction, that is to say from Spain to Morocco.

Meanwhile, the most daring continue to flock to Spain. According to the Spanish Ministry of the Interior, more than 800 migrants have illegally returned to Spain by land and sea since the state of emergency was declared.