Morocco Blocks Exports from Spanish Enclave Melilla, Citing Territorial Claims

This is at least what a textile entrepreneur, promoter of a clothing brand in Melilla, would have learned about a year ago. "Beni Ensar sent me back the container when they realized that the goods came from Melilla. They told me that we could not export from one Moroccan city to another Moroccan city, that it was illegal," the businessman confides to the newspaper El Español.

This situation affects the businessmen of Melilla who have been suffering since August 2018 from the closure of the customs by Morocco, which had pushed them to close their companies in the autonomous city and to create a new one in Andalusia or in Morocco in order to continue to export to the kingdom. "Since the closure of the customs, the exporters of Melilla have gone to Morocco, or had to create a company or find a partner on the mainland to continue working," confirms Enrique Alcoba, president of the Confederation of Entrepreneurs of Melilla (CEME-CEOE).

Faced with this situation, Enrique Alcoba calls on the Spanish government to defend the interests of Melilla and Ceuta in the European Parliament. "We hope that our government will demand from Brussels that Morocco respect the European regulations on commercial customs, and that the regime of travelers be reciprocal in both directions," said the official who is concerned about the future. "No commercial customs, no traveler regime, no tourism, no buyers from Morocco, and to enter Melilla, they require a visa."

"It’s a shame. Morocco allows absolutely nothing. Melilla and Ceuta have been dealing with health emergencies and births of their Moroccan neighbors for decades. Centuries of neighborly relations and exchanges. And the Spanish government is unable to unblock anything," Amin Azmani, a deputy from Somos Melilla, indignantly. Contacted, the delegation of the government in Melilla assured that it was "not aware" of this decision by Morocco.