MBS News
More than two million masks, which were about to be exported and which have been seized by Moroccan customs, will be sold on the local market.The Moroccan customs services got hold of a stock of more than two million medical masks belonging to exporting companies who intended to sell them abroad, said the Moroccan site Le360, referring to the daily Arabic speaking Assabah.
They will be sold on the national market in coordination with the competent authorities, who will ensure compliance with the instructions of the Ministries of Health and the Interior. Structures, public and private, interested in masks must contact the competent authorities and indicate in writing the quantity of masks and the degree of urgency of the order. These include shopping centers, companies in charge of urban waste collection and local authorities. These structures have also expressed urgent needs for medical masks for their staff.
Any export of masks is prohibited in the country because of the health emergency. Exporters were asked to direct their products to the local market.
Also according to Le360, other seizures of large quantities of masks had been carried out previously by customs, to the great misunderstanding of the exporters who claimed to act legally within the framework of contracts concluded with foreign companies.
Some traffick, others help
Customs officials arrested a British truck driver who was about to leave Tangier on March 3 in possession of some 100,000 protective masks, Le360 said, citing security sources. The market value of the seizure amounted to 30 million dirhams, or more than 2.8 million euros.
Another Briton was arrested a day earlier at Agadir airport with 17,000 masks in his luggage, according to the Arabic-language daily Al Akhbar quoted by Bladi.net.
Over the past three days, a group of Chinese people living in Morocco have carried out an awareness campaign with the residents of Casablanca. They urged them to stay at home to help contain the coronavirus epidemic in Morocco.
They also distributed free medical masks to passers-by in a gesture of solidarity and mutual aid with the population, announced the news agency China.
