Morocco Travel Ban Leaves Belgian Tourists Grounded for Summer

"We were supposed to go to Morocco, but we won’t be going this year," confides a teenager from Anneessens to RTBF. "Without a pool, without a fair, these are no longer really vacations, are they!" he complains. Young people from this neighborhood find themselves in the same situation. Three young people feel unhappy that they cannot visit their respective families in the Rif region of Morocco this year. "No trip to the homeland," says one of them. The reason? "Ah, you’ll have to ask the parents," answers another to RTBF.

Many families will thus spend the two months of summer vacation in Brussels. The reasons are economic and health-related. "We don’t know if there will be a second wave or not," explains a Moroccan-origin student residing in Molenbeek. "And let’s not kid ourselves, it’s also related to the economic situation." A report from the national bank also indicates that economic unemployment has mainly affected low-income families, the same source points out. "Personally, my father is a taxi driver, he couldn’t work," says this student.

In addition to the reduced range of activities, what will also be missing during this summer vacation are student jobs. "They tell us that they can’t take us, with the crisis and all that," explains a young man from Anneessens.