Moroccan journalist Ali Anouzla has warned of a potential popular uprising in Morocco, stating that the country has lost an entire generation under King Mohammed VI’s 25-year rule. He highlighted the regression in freedoms due to repression, which has fueled discussions about the existence of a police state.
In his article titled “After a Quarter Century… The People Want to Leave,” Anouzla reflected on the recent mass attempt by thousands of Moroccans to flee to the Spanish enclave of Ceuta. He emphasized that the prevailing sentiment today in Morocco is that “the people who once demanded the removal of those who impoverished, oppressed, and starved them, now want to leave themselves.” He added that “true democracy is the key to a brighter future for Morocco, one that would prevent its youth from fleeing.”
Anouzla argued that the phenomenon of illegal migration reflects the depth of Morocco’s crisis, revealing the failure of successive governments since independence to address social inequality, combat corruption, and build a just society. He cited official statistics, noting that poverty rates rose to over 33% in 2022, while unemployment reached 13% in 2024. Moreover, he highlighted that 1.5 million young Moroccans are out of school, training, and work, representing a “reserve army of desperate individuals ready to do anything to escape their harsh reality.”
The journalist also pointed to alarming statistics in education, with 330,000 students dropping out of middle school, only 34% of Moroccans reaching university, and 15% never attending school at all. Many of those who attempted the “mass escape” on what the Moroccan press dubbed “The Great Escape Night” were young, uneducated, or university graduates without jobs, who had lost all hope.
Anouzla believes these desperate acts carry powerful messages that “condense all political speeches and sound the alarm before it’s too late.” He noted that despite the severity of the crisis, the Moroccan government has yet to issue an official response. Instead, the only reaction has been “security measures, which have consistently failed and exacerbated the problem, allowing repressed crises to build up beneath the surface.”
He also highlighted the irony that this mass migration attempt occurred just weeks after the 25th anniversary of King Mohammed VI’s ascension to the throne. This period, Anouzla argued, should have been enough to build a strong state, but instead, Morocco wasted a quarter-century on crucial issues like education, healthcare, social justice, and fighting corruption. Corruption, he says, has now become systemic, permeating all levels of the state.
In terms of freedoms, Anouzla emphasized that Morocco’s regression due to repression has “strengthened the security apparatus to the point where we now speak of a police state, with a shadowy structure controlling the state’s mechanisms, unaccountable to any oversight or transparency.”
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Author: Nor-Eleslam
