20 Algerian Passengers Mistreated By Casablanca Airport Police In Morocco

At least twenty Algerian passengers aboard the Royal Air Morocco AT 560 flight bound for Algiers witnessed one hour of a genuine nightmare at Mohammed Fifth Airport in Casablanca on Friday.

After joining the airport, where they were to take the plane to Algiers, these passengers were suddenly dismissed from the boarding queue, and their passports confiscated by elements of the Moroccan airport police, without any explanation to be provided.

 They were then taken forcibly to a large glass room, where they were treated with great hostility and contempt by Moroccan police when checking their passports, said one of the unfortunate travelers in a phone-call to “Echorouk”. 

Held for more than an hour under “humiliating conditions” to say the least, before the eyes of hundreds of travelers of different nationalities, the Algerian citizens received no explanation whatsoever on the reasons for their arbitrary arrest. Worse yet, Moroccans police officers remained insensitive to the dire situation of two hapless Algerian families with their young children and sick elderly persons.

Yet the Algerian passengers were all in a regular situation, since their passports had already been earlier verified and duly validated by the Moroccan border police at Marrakech airport. 

Our interlocutor says that after a long wait, and before the “autism” displayed by the Moroccan authorities, he himself took the initiative to alert the Consulate of Algeria in Casablanca to ask them to intervene rapidly and stop this wanton “humiliation”.

This salutary about-turn caused the panic of the Moroccan airport police who swiftly returned the passports to the mistreated Algerian travelers who were finally “liberated”. It should be recalled that the Moroccan airport authorities are not at their first bullying acts against peaceful Algerian travelers.