Morocco Cracks Down on Smuggling, Strains Trade with Spanish Enclaves

Smuggling is booming between the two Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla. The "mule women" are at the forefront of the illicit trade at these two borders. They rush, jostle with their goods, in the metal corridor of the Barrio chino, which connects Melilla to Beni Enzar, in Morocco, cross the border as many times as possible in the same morning, to ultimately earn, at the end of the day, the equivalent of a few tens of euros, reports orientxxi.info.

According to the same source, smuggling also takes place in private vehicles. According to the estimate of Guillermo Martínez, a former Municipal Councilor for Finance, Ceuta exports annually for 700 million euros of goods to Morocco. As for Melilla, its exports would be in the order of 450 million euros, according to the only calculation carried out about a dozen years ago by the Government Delegation (prefecture) in the city.

Nabil Lajdar, Director General of Moroccan Customs, for his part, gave a range oscillating between 1.1 and 1.4 billion, when he explained himself in February before Parliament, specifies the same source. Even if this situation, which generates sometimes precarious jobs, benefits the local economy and several categories of people, it remains that this illicit trade produces a shock wave in Morocco.

Nabil Lajdar explained that the Moroccan tax authorities lose annually between 360 and 540 million euros in customs duties, due to smuggling. For their part, Spanish experts do not fully share this view as they estimate that this figure is excessive. Based on this unsavory finding, the Kingdom of Morocco has opted to fight against smuggling between Ceuta and Melilla, and to suspend legal trade with Spain.

The latter will not be slow to make itself heard. The right-wing opposition is angry. Fernando Gutiérrez Díaz de Otazu, Deputy of the Popular Party of the city, has again denounced, in August 2019, the "unfriendly" attitude of Morocco, wondering if it is trying to make the life of its predominantly Muslim but Spanish population "unbearable", according to the Observatorio Andalusi, a study center dependent on the Islamic Conference of Spain.

Many political leaders intend to take tough action against Morocco. This is the beginning of a long-distance tug-of-war whose outcome will only be determined by time.