Morocco Plans to End Smuggling with Spanish Enclaves Within Decade

This proposal was made last week by the Director General of the Customs and Indirect Taxes Administration (ADII) Nabil Lakhdar during a meeting at the House of Representatives. For the official, this outright ban on smuggled goods can be done gradually over 5 or 10 years before its total cessation, while ensuring that the current option of "coexisting and managing" can also continue by improving the conditions of the carriers and by smoothing the traffic with the two enclaves.

"However, there will always be problems," warned Lakhdar, who says he is in favor of ending smuggling, even if this decision does not depend on his department but on the government. The persistence of smuggling, he added, creates a pull effect for other people coming from other provinces within the country.

Lakhdar also mentioned the closure of the Melilla customs office, stating that this was irreversible. "If this customs office was used for the entry of products manufactured in Melilla, there would have been no problem, but they come from other countries," he said.

The closure of this commercial border has cost Melilla more than 200 million euros in two months, the enclave’s companies had complained. Even though many voices in Spain had risen to condemn this unilateral closure, the Moroccan authorities, for their part, responded that it was not political and aimed above all to fight against smuggling and the informal sector and to develop the port of Bni Nssar located a few kilometers away.