Morocco: A Saudi prince at the heart of a major controversy

The human rights organization revealed on Tuesday a critical situation regarding the construction site of the residence of Prince Turki bin Mohammed bin Fahd, an influential member of the royal family and Minister of State. The work, entrusted to the Saudi companies Modern Building Leaders (MBL) and Innovative Facility Management and Services (IFAS), involved about fifty local subcontractors. According to the NGO, the financial taps have been turned off since October 2024, accumulating arrears of at least $5 million despite repeated promises of regularization.

This deadlock places the Moroccan service providers on the brink of the abyss, with eleven of them declaring imminent cessation of payments. Michael Page, deputy director at Human Rights Watch, deemed it "unacceptable" that entities overseeing a luxury project are driving companies and their employees "to the brink of economic ruin." Faced with the drying up of their cash flow and the accumulation of bounced checks, several entrepreneurs had to proceed with the dismissal of more than a hundred workers, unable to honor the salaries or repay their suppliers.

Opacity reigns as to the exact origin of the blockage. While representatives of the palace claim to have settled the invoice with the Saudi project managers, the latter claim not to have been paid, leaving the local subcontractors caught in a vice. Despite written commitments from IFAS promising payments in the spring of 2025, the funds have never been released, pushing the desperate workers to organize sit-ins in front of the Tangier property to claim what they are owed.

The social cost of this commercial dispute is heavy for the families concerned, some of whom had to sell their belongings to survive. "How am I going to feed my family?" worries an employee who has been without income for four months, while a business owner estimates the damage to be irreversible: "Even if they paid us now, it wouldn’t repair all the damage done to our lives." HRW now urges the Saudi and Moroccan authorities to intervene jointly to ensure full payment of the sums owed.