Morocco’s ’Mule Women’ Face Uncertain Future as Border Crossing Closes

Four months after the closure of this border crossing, these "mule women" suddenly find themselves unemployed. Fatima, a porter for more than thirty years, believes that the government wants to reduce them to begging. For this woman who has raised five children alone, the business was going well before this closure. Now "there is no more work here," she laments.

While Fatima and her colleagues complain about this government decision, the Executive acknowledges that the long-tolerated smuggling has affected its productive fabric and caused deaths in the ranks of these porters, reports AFP. In a statement to l’Economiste, Nabyl Lakhdar, the Director General of Customs, recalls that these "mule women" were "harming the economy by destroying the Moroccan productive sector".

According to the same media, the products transported on foot via the "Tarajal II" border crossing were not taxed, hence the enormous weight of the loads carried on the backs of the porters - up to several tens of kilos. This smuggling between Ceuta and Fnideq represented annually between six and eight billion dirhams (between 570 and 750 million euros), according to the estimates of the customs chief.

For now, these women, whose future is now uncertain, no longer know which way to turn. In early January, a Moroccan parliamentary report recommended creating an industrial zone in the region to allow the reconversion of the porters.