Outsiders live in fear in Morocco

“We hide out like wild animals,” said Bamandou Kalli, 18, a Guinean who like dozens of fellow migrants is holed up in Moroccan scrubland in fear of expulsion by the authorities.

On the outskirts of Tangier, a group of migrants rest under the shade of a tree where they have made a makeshift home after fleeing police raids.

Ibrahim, 19, also from Guinea, said the situation had become increasingly difficult and worrying.

“We don’t know what will happen,” he said.

“We cling on to life but it’s not easy.”

In setting up their new camp, the men have placed carpets and blankets on the parched earth.

Food is shared from a cooking pot placed on the ground.

They moved to the outskirts of Tangier, a port city on Morocco’s northern coast, after authorities began an operation last month targeting people smugglers and the migrants they bring to the country from Sub-Saharan Africa.

The campaign came after hundreds of migrants forced their way into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta by storming the heavily fortified border fence.

In the Tangier neighbourhoods of Boukhalef and Mesnanatan, police then moved in with the backing of special forces and helicopters, rounding up migrants, witnesses said.

While officials would not comment on the operation, witnesses said numerous people were injured as they were forced onto southbound buses and that the migrants would be deported. – AFP