Newspaper article 9, Contraband Modern in the Fes Medina

The third and final part of the report about:

The Effects of “the fight” against smuggling in the suppressed popular classes in the Regions of the North.

After the completion of our report in the cities of Alcazar (17/03/1996) and Tangier (18/03/1996) on the effects of the smuggling campaign on the suppressed popular classes in North regions, we continued with our investigational trip about this social file, which in the last few months started to proliferate at a disturbing rate. Our visit will be devoted to three areas which are regarded as the center of smuggling: Tetouan, Fnidek and the occupied Seta.

I- Tetouan:

Before getting to the city of Tetouan on 19/03/1996, while looking for a taxi to Tetouan, we noticed the effects of the anti-smuggling campaign while still in Tangier. We closely observed two cases that gave us an idea about the bad atmosphere that had begun to dominate Tetouan after the smuggling campaign. “Three days have passed and I have not earned a centime”; the other one replied, “My situation is worse. I cannot go home; whenever I go there my wife starts to shout and cry: did you find some work today or no? Our children need this and that… the hirer needs his money …” This is a dialogue between two taxi drivers who work in the line linking Tangier to Tetouan. It reflects the general atmosphere and the bad impact of the anti-smuggling campaign on people’s everyday life.

We waited till he finished his dialogue with his friend and we asked him if he could take us to Tetouan. He responded “Are you ready, sir, to pay me the money of six passengers?” Surprised I asked him “Why do you want me to pay you the money of six passengers?” He replied, “Because you may wait here for hours without seeing any passenger in the station”. And when I asked about the reason, he answered, “The transportation means are about to fall into bankruptcy because of the campaign against contraband and the absence of alternatives”.

I agreed to pay for two seats, while two young girls told him they would pay for the rest. On our way to Tetouan, one of the girls told the other one, “God only knows how my poor mother is?” Her friend assured her “Do not worry, everything will be ok. Your mother will be well when she sees you. She will be happy with the money you will give her.” only at that moment we understood that the girl wanted to express some of her family and social problems but she could not do it openly in our presence. Yet, out of an ambitious desire, to know the truth, we ventured to ask her about the reasons behind her suffering. After we presented ourselves to the two girls and “briefed” them about the reasons behind our trip to North regions, one of them started to relate her story even before we asked her about it. She said: “My father died before five years leaving behind him a widow and six children. My mother was obliged to look for some work and make some sacrifices. She borrowed some money and decided to work in smuggling. Throughout this work, she managed to sustain us, pay some loans, and for other necessities. As the anti-smuggling campaign started things turned upside down. However, her mother withdrew and cut down her operations before she went back to work a month later. She went to Sebta and Mlilia to buy some merchandize with an intention to sell them in Tangier. Unfortunately, the police captured the merchandize and deprived her of everything. She waited for some time before she went back to smuggling in an attempt to make some money when the police captured her again and, for the second time, denuded her of everything. This was enough for her to fall prey to some psychological problems. In front of these miserable conditions, I decided to do some sacrifice in order to help my mother. So, I went to Tangier with the pretext of visiting my aunt. In Tangier, I worked together with my friend in prostitution. This was the only choice left for me if I want to save my family. Like many other girls from different regions of Morocco I sacrificed my honor because of social and material constraints. Now, I have enough money that can bring her some relief and solve all her problems. As far as I am concerned, I have chosen this way and it’s difficult to withdraw”.

Few miles before Tetouan a bus was stopped by some police men who seemed to have discovered smuggled goods inside the bus. They look like negotiating with some passengers the price that should be paid to free their goods.

The first indications of the effects of anti-smuggling campaign

In comparison with previous visits to Tetouan, this time, the city seems not to be well. It looks like weathering a horrible economic and security siege.
The general impression that we get from our short visit to the different active sectors of the city is the horrible deterioration of its economy since the appearance of the anti-smuggling policy.

We can cite some of the most important indications of this deterioration:

- Before the campaign, the tax station was overcrowded with small and big smugglers coming from different areas of Morocco. After the campaign, we observe a clear paralysis in the station. The number of passengers in the bus is very few in comparison with the recent past. The pavements were also overcrowded with passengers just before the campaign. Now, they are almost void and empty. We went to the box office of the transportation agency and we found that people buying tickets were very few. The same thing applies to the café, shops and restaurants inside the station.

We went out to the market which was not much different from inside the station. What we observed there is a complete absence of customers. Shops and restaurants outside the station are in an even worse condition.
What drew our attention is the large number of young people wandering in the streets and those killing time in popular café(s). Immediately after this short expedition, we went to a café to meet a young man who has close relationships with some of the campaign victims. Our friend was accompanied with one of the great thinkers in Tetouan, with whom we started to discuss and analyse the bad consequences of the state policy on the suppressed classes of Tetouan. In one of his interventions, the thinker said “I have been informed recently by some reliable sources that Tetouan’s Delegacy of Education, starting from 15/03/1996, turned to study the files of almost 400 students, whose parents had submitted formal request, to transport their children to other cities”, He proceeded, “I thing this has to do with the 700 families that came from different areas of Morocco to work in smuggling. After the drive on smuggling these families are now exposed to all forms of subjugation”.

I think the thinker refers here to those families who immigrated to the North of Morocco with the aim of making some money through smuggling. The responsibility does not lie with those families, but with the authorities who were quite aware of the danger but disregarded its consequences.
Today, hundreds of people from different Moroccan regions work in contraband. This leads us to ask the following question: Did not the government know that by allowing people who did not live in Tetouan to possess a residential certificate they indirectly encouraged them to be involved in smuggling? Whatever the answer is, what is strange is to see the government taking the imitative of eradicating smuggling without providing people with an alternative.

After the discussion of this boiling issue (with the great thinker we have mentioned before) we decided to stop at that point and go to dine in a restaurant near the café. What drew our attention is the emptiness of more than 80% of the dinning tables. Only some groups of Spanish colonists were there.

1- A Field visit to the Markets of Tetouan; “Bab Nouadr” as an example

* A description of the general state of the market:

Immediately after dinner we went to the market place of “Bab Nouadr”. We were there in no more than few minutes. We did not notice that kind of over-crowdedness that distinguished the market just few months before.

ustomers in the market were very few. Most of merchandise is composed of electronic machines and foodstuff. We also observed that tradesmen come together in small groups of five or six people to gamble in front of each shop. With the help of our friend we succeeded to talk to one of them who confirmed the same idea: the situation of tradesmen is getting very bad and that they cannot endure that for a long time.

We kept moving from one shop to another looking for more information until we noticed that our presence there became very suspicious. This state did not last for a long time when we suddenly found ourselves surrounded with large groups of tradesmen who displayed their readiness and willingness to supply us with all necessary information. They started to express their discontent and anger towards the situation. One of them said, “If they want to “kill” contraband, they have to provide us with alternatives …” After a moment, we found ourselves obliged to intervene and control the situation; everybody was talking and we were unable to get clear information. So we asked them to choose somebody who could speak on behalf of the group. And while we were trying to organize ourselves two strange people penetrated our assembly and asked us to give them the camera. I responded “We have no camera. What we do have is a copy book to record some information”. Then, I asked them, “Who are you?” They responded, “We are Macadam; we are here to verify the information we have received”. I asked them “What kind of information did you receive?” One of them answered, “That a T.V Channel is going to shoot a film about this market”. I asked them “And what do you see now?” “We can see that information we received are not true”. Before they leave one of them asked me, “What is the name of the newspaper you represent?” I told him “The Socialist Union”. He said “you can do your work freely: you have only to avoid the assemblage of many people…”