Moroccan Workers in Ceuta Face Job Loss as Permit Renewals Stall

The cross-border workers who go to Ceuta every day to earn a living fear losing their jobs. For a few days, the competent Moroccan services have been refusing to issue them the residence certificates, a document necessary to renew their work permit in Ceuta. A measure that is detrimental to these Moroccans who need this work to continue to provide for their families.

Without a work permit, the cross-border workers will have no choice but to live illegally in the autonomous city and try to obtain a residence permit, analyzes El Confidencial, stressing the difficulty of obtaining this document, a full-time employment contract with a monthly salary of around 1,700 euros being required from Spanish employers.

Mostly women, the cross-border workers work as domestic workers or in the hotel and restaurant sectors, or in construction for the men. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, their number was estimated at more than 2,000. Then it dropped considerably after the reopening of the borders in 2022 due to the imposition of a visa for Ceuta and Melilla.

A palliative solution was found by Spain: a specific visa granted free of charge by the Spanish consulate in Tetouan to these women who continued to go to work in Ceuta and were even affiliated to the social security system. At the beginning of 2024, the Moroccan police stopped stamping the passports of the cross-border workers. No official reason has been given to justify this measure.