The Diplomat
The Spanish Embassy in Rabat is going to organize next Sunday a ferry trip to repatriate Spaniards who have been surprised in Morocco by the decision of the Government of this country to close air connections with Spain because of COVID-19.
In declarations to Onda Cero, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha González Laya, informed yesterday that 3,000 Spanish tourists who were on Easter vacations in Morocco have been trapped after the decision of Rabat to close the air connections with Spain and France to try to contain the new British strain of the coronavirus. The closure began at midnight last Tuesday night and will last until “further notice”, according to the Moroccan government. According to the head of Spanish diplomacy, the relationship with Morocco is “excellent” and the air closure is only due to “the management of the coronavirus”.
“We are imposing COVID control measures at borders and measures to avoid unnecessary travel”, the minister declared. “In the same way that we put restrictions on other countries, so do they, and when this happens it is no use picking up the phone and calling the government to solve the problem”, she continued. “It is not enough to turn to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which will always be there”, because “in these times of so much uncertainty at the borders and in the conditions of access to other countries, the best thing to do is to refrain from traveling, it is the most prudent thing to do”, she warned.
In any case, she assured, the Government is not going to stop attending the requests for help of the Spaniards trapped in Morocco because “it is always going to do it and the public administrations are there for that”. In that sense, a ferry of the Balearia company will leave this coming Sunday, April 4, from the port of Tangier Med to Algeciras to transport Spaniards, Moroccan residents in Spain and foreigners with study visas or family reunification who wish to return to Spain, as reported both the Embassy of Spain in Rabat, which has chartered the trip, and the shipping company, which has published on its website a registration form for those interested.
