Moroccan Migrants Pay Thousands to Flee Spain’s COVID-19 Outbreak by Sea

Immigration seems to have changed direction with the coronavirus pandemic. Moroccan illegal immigrants who had emigrated perilously to Spain are making the reverse journey, under the same conditions, to flee covid-19 and return to Morocco. The important thing for them is to reach the Moroccan coast, no matter the price to pay.

The maximum state of alert has been declared in the Larache region by the gendarmerie and local authorities. If the fear of the pandemic is the main reason for this all-out immigration, it must be said that the declaration of the state of emergency in Spain, unemployment and the pressure on drug traffickers have forced these Moroccans to return to their country.

These Moroccans who left Spain on board inflatable boats were surprised by huge waves and remained stranded in the waters for an entire day, according to the authorities of Larache. They were saved thanks to a smuggler from Kenitra who was able to take them to a beach near the Akla douar, for the sum of 300,000 dirhams, reports Al Ahdath Al Maghribia.

But fearing prosecution by the authorities, these young people "vanished into thin air as soon as they arrived". And even if the elements of the royal gendarmerie of the commune of Laouamra initiated an investigation, it was impossible to locate them. It was finally the gendarmerie of Moulay Bousselham who traced some of them, hidden in places described as "unusual, like this man who was surprised crouched in a traditional clay oven", in the Chaoufaa douar.

The search continues in the douars located in the communes of Moulay Bousselham and Sidi Boubker Haj, in the province of Kenitra. The objective is above all to ensure that these immigrants do not constitute a focus of coronavirus contamination.