Morocco Savvy

Al Hoceima finally gets an all-year-round ferry connection to Spain - good news for Moroccan expats and road congestion alike.

From early June, a new ferry service will open between Malaga and Al Hoceima. There will be two crossings per day in either direction during the summer, and one per day off-season.

It’s good news for the thousands of Moroccan expats living in Europe, many of whom are from the region around Al Hoceima. A lot of them prefer to bring their car when they return to visit family during the summer.

Until now, they had to use the Malaga to Melilla service, the ferries between Algeciras and Tangier or the seasonal route from Almeria to Al Hoceima. For a lot of Moroccans living in the Malaga region, that meant some considerable detours.

It also meant a lot of extra traffic on the already overstretched summer roads in Morocco. The fact that the roads in the north of the country aren’t exactly highway-style or well-maintained just added to the mayhem that this annual exodus provokes.

Curiously, the name of the company that will run this service hasn’t been mentioned in the news reports. Our bet is on Trasmediterranea - if had been Moroccan ferry operator Comanav, that fact would have been in the headlines.

The privatization of Morocco’s largest shipping company is attracting interest from all corners of the world.

Most of us know Comanav as one of the ferry companies that sail between Algeciras and Tangier. But there’s more to the Compagnie Marocaine de Navigation, which celebrated its 60th anniversary last year.

It operates passenger services between France, Italy and Morocco, a ferry in Senegal, and cargo ships across the globe. The company already runs the port of Casablanca and will add the management of a container terminal at Tangier’s new Mediterranée port to its business.

The company is up for sale. The Moroccan state wants to privatize its 45 percent stake in the company and has persuaded Comanav’s other shareholders to follow suit.

According to today’s L’Economiste, a who’s-who of international shipping is lining up for the take-over. The bidders include rival ferry operator Trasmediterranea from Spain, French groups SNCM and CMA-CGM, Italy’s Gruppo Grimaldi and Maersk from Denmark.

Other names that have been mentioned are another Moroccan shipping line, IMTC, Dubai Ports World (which gained prominence when it had to sell operation leases for US ports over security concerns) and a series of Latin American and Asian companies.

Even the Chinese giant Hutchison Whampoa is rumored to be interested in Comanav.

Bids will have to start at around US$ 260 million, the minimum set by the Moroccan ministry of Finance. As part of the deal, the new owners must pledge even more money to upgrade Comanav’s ageing fleet.

It’s worth remembering that only a few years ago, many analysts thought Comanav was heading for bankruptcy. More cargo lines and better logistical management turned the company around, its president tells L’Economiste today. 

Comanav then went on to buy its rival Limadet in 2003.

That’s pretty good navigating.

• Everything you need to know about ferries from Spain 

Arriving at the port of Tangier, who exactly are those men who walk around doing nothing while expecting to be paid for that by tourists?

Al Bayane newspaper continues its exposé of tourist anxieties, this time zooming in on the port of Tangier.

Customs and immigration officials aside, the ferry dock in Tangier is the domain of men who carry badges with ”Écrivain public”, which translates into ”public writers”. They help people write letters to the authorities and fill out official forms.

With a literacy rate of 52 percent, “letter writers” still make sense in Morocco. But the “écrivains publics” in the port of Tangier generally don’t focus on their less cultured countrymen who arrive by ferry. Instead, they swarm around foreign tourists like flies.

Al Bayane describes the way the écrivains work in amusing detail. Pretending to be part of Moroccan officialdom, they keep close to the customs officer. When he leaves with the tourist’s papers to register the vehicle, the écrivain moves in and asks the foreigner for money.

Perplexed, a lot of tourists believe that this is part of the entry procedures, and pays the guy a tip. If only because they have just seen their travel documents disappear somewhere and are anxious to get them back. If it takes a bribe to make that happen - quicker or at all - well, okay then.

The problem is that these guys are the ferry docks’ equivalent of air hostesses. Asked about their official role, a spokesman for a ferry company tells Al Bayane that the écrivains are there to smoothen the coming ashore of passengers, answer their questions and show them the way.

“In any case, not relieve them of their money,” the paper concludes.

One French tourist is asked “So where’s my gift?” He gives the écrivain a keycord, a gesture that is not appreciated. The écrivain throws it back and says, “I don’t need your keycord, I want euros.” 

The French tourist’s wife, meanwhile, has her own écrivain standing by her door. “Lady, give me cigarette please,” he tells her politely in that wonderful brand of Moroccan French where definite articles are not part of the grammar. She hands him one, and the écrivain shouts: “No! I don’t want one, I want the packet!”

Finally, the French tourist has had enough. “Fuck off!” he yells*, threatening to call in the authorities.

And there’s the next problem, Al Bayane writes. The real officials stand idly by as tourists are hassled by the touts. Why is that, the paper asks a customs officer.

“These guys make no money at all,” he explains reluctantly. In a “give them a break” kind of way.

But is that the tourists’ problem?

On top of the “tourist prices” for hotels, taxis and souvenirs, we rip them off the minute they arrive, the newspaper fumes. “No wonder then that so many prefer to travel elsewhere for their next holiday.”

“A satisfied visitor equals ten new tourists,” Al Bayane ends. “The opposite is also true.”

• *Useful French #1: “Fuck off”, we learn, is “Foutez le camp!”

Gale-force winds forced ferry operators to cancel almost all services between Algeciras,  Tarifa and Tangier on Sunday.

Only the 9 AM service from Tangier to Algeciras made it to its destination. After that, strong winds and waves up to six meters forced other ships to return to the port of Tangier. All services were then cancelled.

The bad weather did not affect operations in the port of Tangier, but Algeciras and Tarifa were battered by winds of up to 9 Beaufort.

Right now, the winds in the region have eased to 4 Beaufort. No disruptions of ferry services are expected today.

• Now that the sea has calmed, see where you can catch a ferry