Smuggling from Spanish Enclaves Costs Morocco Billions Annually, Study Finds

In fact, around 945 million euros worth of goods were poured into Morocco in 2017 through Ceuta and Melilla. This smuggling, which allows families to subsist, mainly benefits the big traffickers and has a very negative impact on the Moroccan economy.

Médias24 collected and reviewed the data on imports from Ceuta and Melilla. At the Bab Sebta border, at least five billion dirhams of smuggling are recorded per year. The total value of imported products seems greatly disproportionate to the demographic data of the city.

But a report by Procesca (the Public Development Company of Ceuta) indicated that 54% of the city’s imports in 2017 were destined for the border with Morocco, compared to 38% in 2009. A figure close to an estimate provided to Médias24 by Nabyl Lakhdar, Director General of Customs, who estimates the amount of smuggling from Ceuta at between six and eight billion dirhams per year.

Melilla imported products and goods worth a total of 771.5 million euros in 2017, 69% of which came from Spain. Like Ceuta, the largest share of imports to the autonomous city concerns food products, beverages and tobacco products (250 million euros).

And despite the closure of the Bab Sebta crossing two months ago, the trend has not reversed, according to the same source.