It’s a phenomenon that affects the entire Maghreb, that of the flight of young people who only dream of Europe. In the Moroccan town of Taghazout, a tourist surfing paradise, a new route of exile is taken by young Moroccans: the one which, across the Atlantic, tells “Middle East Eye”, opens the way to Europe via the Canary Islands.
Before coming here, I thought Taghazout was paradise. A paradise for surfers, but also for young people like me who want to make a lot of money in a short time. I told myself that, by working with tourists, it would be easy to get my family out of poverty, and that my dreams of exile would finally end.”
Ilyas is 18 years old. Originally from the poor suburbs of Agadir (southern coast of Morocco), he left school early to support his family financially: mechanic, painter, worker, tailor, jet-ski instructor, “there is no job that I have not done”, he sums up to Middle East Eye (MEE).
But for the past year he has been working on managing apartments for vacationers, one idea has obsessed him: attempting to cross the Atlantic Ocean. “When I was 15, I went alone to Nador [northeast Morocco] and jumped into the Mediterranean. I wanted to swim to Melilla [Spanish enclave in northern Morocco]. But a policeman saw me and brought me back to shore. Due to tightened controls, reaching Ceuta [another Spanish enclave] and Melilla is no longer as easy as before. You have to go south.”
During his free time, he carefully studies the different possible routes and prepares for a journey that should last three days. With Google Maps in hand, he explains that he plans to do the first part of the route by jet-ski, before continuing at night aboard an inflatable boat. As of May 31, 2022, 8,268 migrants had managed to reach the Canary Islands from Morocco, twice as many as in 2021 during the same period.
Moreover, like Ilyas, in Morocco, more than one candidate in five for emigration is under the age of 19, according to figures from the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
“In Europe, you can achieve your dreams ten times faster than in Morocco. Here, you exhaust yourself working twelve hours a day for a pittance. The authorities have been financing the construction of luxury hotels in Taghazout for several years, while we young people remain in poverty,” confids to MEE Sofiane, another 17-year-old candidate for exile, who works in a surf shop and has not been paid by her boss for three months.
As part of the Azur plan [Tourism Development Plan], inaugurated in 2001, the Moroccan authorities announced the creation of six seaside resorts across the country.
source: courrierinternational.com
