Since September 1, passengers holding an Ivorian passport have been required to have a visa to be able to travel to Morocco. This measure, presented by the Ivorian authorities as a means of limiting the influx of irregular migrants and combating nationality trafficking, is otherwise appreciated by visa applicants. Frustrations are accumulating, and some do not hesitate to express their dissatisfaction with this new procedure which, according to them, complicates travel to Morocco.
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“I think that it was not necessary to introduce a visa to go to Morocco. Since the entry into force, we have been forced to queue every day in front of the ambassador to have a visa issued. And it’s tiring,” testifies one of them.
Ivorian visa applicant.
To understand the application procedure, we went to the Moroccan embassy in Ivory Coast located in the Commune of Cocody. On site Abdechakour Guenbour, deputy mission manager at the Moroccan embassy, explains the efforts made on a daily basis by the embassy to process the data in order to best satisfy all the people who come to make the request.
“Since the introduction of the visa, all embassy staff have been called upon. To date, we have received and validated more than 1,500 applications, issued 860 visas and around 300 were rejected for incomplete files.” Et to confide that“on average 170 files are processed each day, 100 of which are normal and the rest distributed between students and officials”. Abdechakour Guenbour reminded that this measure was taken “at the request of the Ivorian government. Our Ivorian brothers are always welcome.»
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A colossal job that requires a lot of effort and time. Thus, all services are hard at work to get there due to the crowds that prevail every day.
The implementation of this new measure had a direct impact on the flow of Ivorian travelers to Morocco. If some choose other destinations or postpone their trips to a later date, others, notably students, find themselves stranded. “We hope for a review of this decision in the coming months,” claim the plaintiffs. And to add “that the Ivorian authorities must resolve the problem of nationality trafficking from the roots, particularly in the issuance of passports. That’s where the problem comes from. The introduction of the visa has no place.”
The wish of the applicants is clear: a return to the previous situation, where the travel of Ivorians to Morocco was done without the constraint of a visa.
Since then, travel agencies have confirmed the decline “around 30% of reservations for Morocco. The process discourages many of our customers, especially those traveling for short stays.confides Solange Kouakou, travel agency director reached by telephone.
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And the Deputy Mission Manager of the Moroccan Embassy, indicated, “There have always been crowds at our level. There are two Royal Air Maroc flights and one Air Côte d’Ivoire flight every day. So, the flights are following their normal course as before.”
While waiting for a possible review of this measure, Ivorians will have to be patient and adapt to new realities. The dissatisfaction of travelers shows, however, that the visa issue between Ivory Coast and Morocco reflects the notable impacts on the lives of citizens, testifies to the relations which unite the two countries.
This introduction of the visa is effective for an experimental period of two years, it does not concern Moroccan citizens wishing to travel to Côte d’Ivoire, nor Ivorians holding diplomatic or service passports.
Par Emmanuel Djidja (Abidjan, correspondence)
09/28/2024 at 11:52 a.m.
