Morocco’s Stranded Citizens Reach 32,000, Including PM’s Family Members

During an intervention before the House of Councillors on Tuesday, the Prime Minister updated the number of Moroccans stranded abroad. From 27,000 Moroccans initially, the number is now up to nearly 32,000 thanks to the updating of repatriation requests made by Moroccan embassies and consulates.

During his intervention, the Prime Minister rejected the remarks of some councillors accusing his government of delaying the repatriation procedures of the stranded compatriots, mostly in Europe.

Saâdeddine El Othmani also invited the parliamentarians to understand the difficulty of the situation, noting that there are elected officials and senior officials stranded abroad. According to him, some members of his family stranded abroad have not been able to return to Morocco due to the state’s logic based on the general interest.

For El Otmani, the return of these citizens requires "many preparations", and all the departments concerned are "in permanent meeting on this file". He also specified that these departments have prepared all the details of the repatriation process, from travel management to quarantine measures once in Morocco.

The Prime Minister also indicated that the census of stranded Moroccans is an important measure in itself, in addition to the operation of their accommodation, which has concerned about 25% of them, arguing that this approach is important for those who could not be housed, particularly in France, Spain and Turkey with 7,000, 2,000 and 4,000 people respectively.