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Swedish citizen Samir Dasko Aziz and his wife have been in Morocco since March 14.
Days came before the crown pandemic forced the country to close its borders and quarantine people.
– We came here for my wife to give birth to children. Our son was born on March 16. Two days later, all of Morocco was closed. On March 20, I signed up on the Swedish Foreign Ministry list to go home and received confirmation that I was registered.
Samir was not informed about the flight back to Sweden
A month later, on April 18, Sweden organized an evacuation flight from Casablanca to Stockholm.
– I didn’t even get any information about the flight. I contacted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and they told me that there must have been some technical error. Now they say there is no scheduled flight. And we are 249 Swedes who remain here, according to the figures of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, says Samir Dasko.
The Express sent an email to Samir Dasko from the Swedish Embassy in Morocco since Monday, May 11, where he says that 249 people are registered on the Swedish list. However, the embassy writes that there may be people on the list who have traveled to their home in Sweden but have not registered, and who do not want to return to their home in Sweden at this time, but still want the embassy to know who are in the country.
Samir Dasko says he sent “thousands” of emails to the Foreign Ministry and repeatedly called them for help.
Ann Linde on stranded Swedes: “Now we only have the Gambia”
So far, the government has helped some 7,000 Swedes return home from other countries. On Saturday, Foreign Minister Ann Linde (S) visited the Weekend studio and commented on the stranded Swedes.
“Now we only have The Gambia left of all the countries in the world where there are still Swedes who can’t get home commercially,” said Ann Linde.
Samir Dasko thinks the statement is strange.
– The Minister of Foreign Affairs says “now we only have Gambia left”. But we still have 249 Swedes in Morocco.
I did not receive help from France and Germany
He says the Foreign Ministry has proposed alternatives that have not worked.
– They assumed there was a boat from Tangier to France. But as soon as we are Swedish, they say it is first for the French. That they have priority. Sweden also told us that there is now a flight from Agadir to Cologne in Germany. Then we go there. Then they say “no, it’s the Germans first”. If there is room, it is for Swedish families with children and then you have to take you to Sweden.
Samir Dasko is disappointed by the situation, but the Foreign Ministry believes there have been good sources of information for Swedes stranded in Morocco.
“Since mid-March, the embassy has also worked intensively to disseminate information on different opportunities to leave Morocco on a variety of channels, on travel information on Sweden abroad, through the UD Resklar application, with a shipment to the Swedish list and through direct contact with Swedes in Morocco by phone and email The embassy clearly reported since mid-March that it would probably be difficult to leave Morocco for a longer period if they did not leave the country quickly in connection with regular traffic stops aerial. However, many Swedes have only heard of this in recent weeks, after a large number of flights to the Nordic countries and the rest of Europe. “Diana Qudhaib writes in the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in an email.
Concern for daughter and work: “Who is going to pay my bills?”
The Moroccan stay, which would have lasted two weeks, takes two months. At home, Samir Dasko’s ten-year-old daughter is waiting for him.
– He feels very bad and does not want to go to school. I have to say goodbye, my poor manager says “what should we do?” Who will pay my bills? In the Swedish system you have nothing if you don’t work.
Swedish citizens in Morocco are now organizing in a Facebook group, “Sweden abandons its citizens in Morocco”, which has more than 300 members.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sweden has organized a large number of home flights for Swedish citizens in Morocco.
“We do not recognize in the description given, on the contrary, Morocco is one of the countries where we have worked actively and intensively for a long time to help the Swedes in the situation that has arisen. An example of this is that our embassy in Rabat, together with the other Nordic embassies and in close contact with local authorities, worked together to develop permits for a total of eleven additional flights to the Nordic countries, of which three to Stockholm. In total, the Swedish Embassy, in collaboration with other Nordic and European countries, has been able to help approximately 500 Swedes to leave Morocco. All of these efforts have taken place after Morocco canceled its flights to the outside world on March 15. “ Diana Qudhaib writes.
