8,000 Dirhams in Morocco to Sleeping in a Sebta Alley: Hamza’s Harsh Reality
Hamza had a job and a salary that many young Moroccans would envy. Yet a few videos he saw on TikTok and Instagram convinced him to abandon everything for Sebta. Two days later, he was sleeping hidden in an alley.
At 25, Hamza El Yemen worked as a sales representative selling bottles in Casablanca. He earned 8,000 dirhams a month, a comfortable income compared with the salaries commonly paid in Morocco.
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He was therefore neither unemployed nor without resources. He still lived with his parents, brothers, and sisters, but had a professional situation that many young people his age struggle to achieve.
That was not enough to keep him from leaving.
On Thursday, 30 July, Hamza discovered videos on Instagram and TikTok showing Moroccans entering Sebta in large numbers. Some claimed that “the gate is open.” He immediately saw it as “the chance of a lifetime.”
Along with several friends, he headed for Fnideq. The group spent 1,450 dirhams on a chauffeured car ride from Casablanca and tried to avoid police checks. Hamza left behind his job, salary, and family without knowing what truly awaited him on the other side, Le Monde reports.
From 8,000 dirhams to an alley
In Sebta, he found neither a job, housing, nor a way to reach the Spanish mainland. For two nights, he slept in a corner of an alley so as not to attract attention.
The contrast was brutal. Just a few hours earlier, he had been earning 8,000 dirhams every month. Now he was homeless, almost without food, and unable to continue his journey toward Europe.
Hamza explains that, in his view, his salary did not allow him to rent an apartment and leave the family home. He says he loves Morocco, but can no longer imagine a future there. “We were told to study, but we remain stuck,” he confides.
His case goes beyond that of a young man drawn in by a rumor on social media. It reveals a deeper malaise: the desire to leave no longer affects only those without jobs or income. It also reaches young people who earn a decent living but no longer see what that effort can offer them.
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Within a few hours, Hamza abandoned what many people spend years obtaining. Not for a contract in Europe or a concrete promise, but for a gate he believed was open. In Sebta, he found nothing but an alley to sleep in.
