As Morocco Opens its Borders, a Delicate Return to Normal

Toward the end of November 2021, news of the mysterious Omicron variant swept the world. It was another episode in the seemingly never-ending saga of COVID-19, a routine to which the world had become accustomed by that point. Governments around the world predictably imposed new restrictions in an attempt to curb the spread of the more contagious yet less deadly variant, and some, including Morocco, closed their borders entirely. This had a grave impact on its tourism sector, which comprised 7.1% of its GDP in 2019 and has been facing a severe decline since the start of the pandemic, as well as general international commerce and economic activity. Royal Air Maroc had planned to launch direct flights from Casablanca to Tel Aviv on December 12, 2021, following the normalization of relations between Morocco and Israel (coincidentally the only two MENA countries to have closed their borders in response to Omicron), and they finally reached this important milestone in intra-MENA relations on March 13, 2022.

On a human level, Moroccan citizens and diaspora members overseas who wanted to visit relatives in the kingdom could no longer do so. This is not just an abstract concept; in fact, many members of the Sciences Po campus of Menton community are from Morocco or have strong family ties to the country. Maryam Khattari, a 2A from Casablanca, was very upset over the border closure, and she expressed frustration over not being able to go home or have her family members leave the country to visit in Europe. She emphasized the lack of sufficient advance communication from airline authorities regarding the suspension of flights, as well as the great deal of uncertainty that resulted from the lack of a clear end date for the restrictions. Anis Karrakchou, a 2A from Rabat, also did not visit Morocco during the break; rather, he enjoyed time in Tunisia with the Babel Initiative. He acknowledged his minority position, but was somewhat apathetic regarding the border closure. He did express sympathy toward those who had missed the opportunity to visit relatives during the month-long break in between the autumn and spring semesters. He has now recently returned from Morocco and recounted how “enjoyable [and] comfortable” it was “to see my family and to eat Moroccan food — the food I grew up with.”

The government reopened the borders on February 7, 2022 following a series of protests from tourism industry workers. As the world enters a new phase of the pandemic, with increasingly more governments viewing COVID-19 as an endemic disease, there still remains some uncertainty. One can only hope that the dark days of travel bans will soon be behind us.