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Morocco Detains Sub-Saharan Migrants for COVID Testing Amid Surge in Boat Departures

– byPrince · 1 min read
Morocco Detains Sub-Saharan Migrants for COVID Testing Amid Surge in Boat Departures

Since last week, several people of sub-Saharan origin have been arrested by the Moroccan authorities in Laâyoune, in the south of the country, for quarantine and to undergo a Covid-19 screening test. "There is no water... We are not eating...", explains one of them.

They are subjected by the police to PCR tests, after 25 infections were recorded among the 68 occupants of two boats from Laâyoune to Fuerteventura last week. On a third boat, intercepted off the coast of Tarfaya, 85 kilometers from the southern capital, 37 other people also tested positive for the coronavirus.

Out of the 168 Covid-19 cases detected in recent days, only 24 are people of sub-Saharan origin.

The Moroccan government has created two detention centers since the beginning of the pandemic. "Sub-Saharan migrants are being held in Laâyoune in illegal detention centers and very difficult conditions," says Omar Naji, president of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH) in Nador.

"The contagions are leading to discrimination and racism by Moroccans towards the sub-Saharan migrant population, the former accusing the latter of bringing Covid-19," explains a local activist to Eldiario.es.

Category: Morocco
Keywords:
Illegal immigration Laayoune Coronavirus in Morocco (Covid-19)

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