Portuguese tourists in Morocco complain about lack of information on repatriation

A group of 10 Portuguese tourists in Morocco complained this Sunday about the lack of response from the Portuguese authorities to the repatriation flight that took place this evening after the earthquake that hit the country on Friday.

With a flight to Portugal scheduled for this Sunday afternoon, the Portuguese would like to await their return on the repatriation flight, but regret the lack of information from the consular service.

“I called the consulate constantly, for more than an hour. When they finally responded, they said that the repatriation flight should take place only after our commercial flight. But they asked me to send an “email” with the names of the tourists,” he reported to Lusa Filipe Marquez.

António Cardoso sent an email, which was answered “within 10 minutes,” asking for the names of tourists. “But this second ‘email’ has already gone unanswered,” he said.

On Saturday evening, the Portuguese Air Force airlifted 102 Portuguese citizens from Morocco who were asking for help to leave the African country.

In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that 102 Portuguese (including a father and child injured in the earthquake) arrived this morning on a Portuguese Air Force plane that flew to the city of Marrakech on Saturday evening.

The withdrawal operation, “despite the ups and downs on the ground, was carried out in an orderly and peaceful manner,” the ministry said, stressing that it would continue to maintain “contacts with the Portuguese who remain in the region most affected by the earthquake.” , which, according to the latest official report, caused 2,012 deaths and 2,059 injuries, of which 1,404 were seriously injured.

Tourists from Lisbon and Porto were in Jamma el Fna Square, one of Marrakech’s most tourist attractions, when the earthquake struck on Friday evening.

“The ground started shaking, people panicked, everything started running,” Filipa Marquez told Lusa, saying they were right next to the minaret of the Kharbush mosque, which had partially collapsed.

“We were there two minutes ago. The minaret fell and the cars were buried,” he said.

The Portuguese, staying in a “riad” (small hotel) in the Medina, a UNESCO world heritage site, spent the night in the open air because there was “a lot of destruction” – debris from the collapse of building facades. made access to the premises difficult – and because of fears that the copies could cause the building to collapse, leaving it with cracks.

“We went for the essentials and returned to the square. We slept on a rug,” said Philippa Marquez.

The earthquake, whose epicenter was recorded in the city of Isis, 63 kilometers southwest of the city of Marrakesh, was felt in Portugal and Spain, reaching a magnitude of 7.0 on the Richter scale, according to the National Institute of Geophysics of Marrakech. .

The US Geological Survey (USGS) recorded the earthquake’s magnitude as 6.8.

The Kingdom of Morocco declared three days of national mourning.