Yemeni Woman’s Visa Struggle Keeps Family Apart in Morocco

In a statement to the Hespress website, the computer engineer from Yemen said she had met the Moroccan filmmaker, Marouane Chiguer, on social media. The love affair had taken a new turn, and they decided to formalize their union in 2017.

Due to the war, the Yemeni authorities had refused to grant a visa to the Moroccan citizen in 2018, forcing the couple to turn to the Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which unfortunately did not follow up on their request.

In 2019, the filmmaker managed to obtain a Moroccan visa for his wife, through an immigration office at a cost of $2,500. But this approach only made matters worse, as the Yemeni national was arrested at the airport for forging a consular document.

The spouses were detained at the airport for several days before the authorities decided to separate them, repatriating the young woman to Dubai. But the couple’s adventure did not end there. When they went to the Moroccan embassy in Malaysia, their visa request was once again denied.

The young woman’s lawyer deplored the Moroccan government’s attitude, which he said had shown "negligence, marginalization and segregation towards Maha Nouamane’s case." "The war situation in Yemen is the only plausible explanation for the Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ attitude," he added.