Stranded in Morocco since March 20, Abdellah Oulad, president of AS Schaerbeek, was unable to be part of the delegation of the last 264 passengers who were recently repatriated to Belgium.
Many Africans originally from Morocco , Tunisia or Senegal have died from covid-19 abroad. But the repatriation of their bodies by their relatives to their countries of origin is a real obstacle course.
They are about sixty retirees stranded in North Africa for 50 days. Faced with intense and unbearable heat waves, as well as the lack of boats, these groups of French camper-van enthusiasts nicknamed "The forgotten of Morocco", aged 60 to 83, are pleading for their repatriation.
The 22,000 Moroccans stranded abroad, the majority in Europe, will have to be patient. The long-awaited repatriation cannot be done now, according to the report of the Council of Government chaired by Saad Eddine El Otmani, this Thursday, May 7 in Rabat.
For more than a month, Christian and Bernadette Garroui have been waiting to return to Laval (in Mayenne). But it is almost impossible, given the preventive measures taken by the Moroccan authorities to fight against the coronavirus. It is a tradition for the couple to come and spend three months in Morocco every year.
Kathy, a Belgian from Charleroi, is stuck in Morocco with her 3 and 5 year old children for several weeks. The closure of Morocco’s borders due to the coronavirus is at the root of this blockage, the outcome of which is difficult to envisage, even though Kathy wants to return to take care of her other children left in Belgium.
Naïma, her brothers and sisters have asked the Moroccan authorities for help in repatriating their father, Mohamed Nourani, "a high-risk person", who found himself, all alone, stranded in Morocco due to the lockdown.
Due to the closure of all Moroccan borders due to covid-19, around 350 Moroccans have remained stranded in Ceuta and Melilla. They live in precarious and difficult conditions.
Many Moroccans, stranded in Saudi Arabia due to border closures and the lockdown imposed because of covid-19, are asking to be repatriated.
Saadia Demnati’s father, sick and alone, finds himself stranded in Morocco due to the lockdown imposed by the authorities to curb the spread of covid-19 in the kingdom. The resident of Melun is calling for help to repatriate him to France.
Several elderly Vosges couples are stuck in Morocco due to the very strict confinement and the cancellation of maritime links to Spain. Hubert Bergé has launched a petition so that the French government quickly organizes their repatriation.
The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, said that the repatriation of Europeans stranded in non-EU countries is almost complete. While the institution has succeeded in these operations so far, it is still difficult for it to organize the return of the 50,000 Europeans who are confined in countries like Morocco .