About 3,500 women were carrying Spanish goods in huge bags over their backs and were engaged in the so-called “livelihood smuggling” in addition to 200 underage children at the Ceuta crossing, according to a report issued by the Moroccan Parliament, before the Moroccan authorities stopped smuggling in October 2019 and closed the crossing The border after it in March 2020.
The Parliament report had recognized that Moroccan women who are trained in livelihood smuggling at the Ceuta crossing are living in a tragic situation, and sleep for two days and more in the open, but today they are without work and without income, and they have merchants and facilities that used to revolve around smuggling.
Despite Morocco's launch of development projects in the region, the social situation and the demand for urgent livelihood led the people of the city of Fnideq (adjacent to occupied Ceuta) to protest. Will the proposed projects succeed in reviving the region in development?
Are alternatives to live decent?
Social cost
The city of Fnideq in northern Morocco has witnessed demonstrations for 3 consecutive weeks against the economic conditions caused by the suspension of commercial activities related to what is known as "livelihood smuggling" at the border crossing of the occupied city of Ceuta.
During the past four decades, livelihood smuggling has devoted various forms of suffering, and cost the national economy significant losses estimated by Moroccan officials at 7 billion dirhams annually (one dollar equals approximately 8.8 Moroccan dirhams) for the Bab Ceuta crossing alone.
Economic Advisor Adel Khalis believes that the closure of the Ceuta and Melilla crossings has led to an economic recession in the neighboring cities, which have benefited greatly from the economic dynamism caused by the livelihood smuggling operations, despite its many disadvantages.
For his part, the head of the Northern Observatory for Human Rights, Muhammad bin Issa, said in an interview with Al-Jazeera Net that the situation has become greatly congested and fraught with the delay of alternative projects, adding that the population is going through a social crisis, and they have immediate demands, and there is a kind of lack of awareness of the danger of smuggling, and that the restrictions The situation worsens.
In the same context, Khalis cautioned that the social cost of preventing smuggling may be very harsh in the absence of alternatives to alleviate its economic repercussions, especially in the context of economic crises that are always followed by social tension and protests.
Smuggling of sustenance has devoted, over the past four decades, various forms of (European) suffering.
Development programs
A report by the Economic and Social Council (an official consultative institution) showed that the closure of the Ceuta and Melilla crossings by Morocco, as well as the prevention of commercial operations through the port of Melilla since July 2018, would be effective in the short term, and the report added that the closure is not focused on addressing the causes The depth that allowed the smuggling trade to spread.
The report recommended granting tax and financing incentives, and simplifying administrative procedures for companies to encourage them to expand in the areas adjacent to Ceuta and Melilla.
400 million dirhams (about $ 45 million) have been allocated to implement a series of projects within the integrated program for the economic development of the Mdiq-Fnideq and Tetouan region this week.
The projects within this program are divided into 3 main axes, which are the creation of a zone for economic activities in the city of Fnideq, the development of a mechanism for financial stimulation to attract investments in the economic activities areas "Tetouan Park" and "Tetouan Shore", and the creation of economic incentive initiatives to accompany companies in a structured framework, and improve The ability of women and youth to enter the labor market.
Urgent solutions
In turn, the human rights activist, Muhammad Bin Issa, stressed the need to accelerate the initiatives of economic activities in the suburbs of Fnideq, and suggested employing a group of young people in Tangier Med port, for example, and creating job opportunities for women in some factories in the industrial zones in the region, pending the completion of alternative projects proposed by the government. .
Bin Issa stated in his statement to Al-Jazeera Net that the authorities have begun to train a group of young people with academic qualifications to integrate them into the education sector, and to employ about 100 women who were working in smuggling livelihoods in the National Promotion (various state-owned workshops).
For his part, economist Adel Khalis considers that the success of any plan to get out of this crisis - in the short term - depends on the extent to which the affected groups are targeted with the measures that are taken.
Khalis says that it is not possible to deny the achievements and efforts made by the government to develop the northern regions, which contributed to the improvement of a set of socio-economic indicators, but this was not reflected in the required manner on the vulnerable groups in these areas.
The same speaker affirms that what is required is to lay the foundations for an integrated and sustainable growth that includes all components of society, through comprehensive development policies based on investment in human capital as a lever for economic and social development in Morocco.
Promising qualifications
The Tangier-Tetouan region is rich in tourism qualifications and resources that make it one of the attractive tourist areas in Morocco, and it has important coastal qualifications and rich cultural heritage, and those who are interested in the need to value and crystallize it in the framework of an attractive and marketable tourism product that contributes to the radiance of the region.
In his turn, Bin Issa affirms that the geographical location, infrastructure and exploits existing in the region are qualifications and ingredients for success and development that need to be well invested.
Bin Issa believes that the tourism sector alone can give a start, and be an economic lever if managed rationally.
While waiting for an economic alternative to end the economic and social crisis that hundreds of families are suffering from working in the strait-Fneideq, those affected by the closure of the Ceuta crossing continue their protest, so will the Moroccan government succeed in providing real alternatives that prevent a season of migration from the north and absorb the congestion?