Operación Marhaba 2021: el Ministerio de Equipamiento tramita las solicitudes de reembolso de los MRE

Moroccans residing abroad (MRE) who have purchased a ticket for the sea crossing and wish to receive an initial refund must submit a request to a platform set up by the Ministry of Equipment, Transport, Logistics and Water, the institution in charge of receiving and processing the refund requests submitted.

This initiative is aimed at facilitating the return of MREs during Operation Marhaba, which began on 15 June and ends on 30 September, and within the framework of "the implementation of the procedures for the partial reimbursement of tickets for sea crossings", as reported in a statement. 

In order to carry out the process as effectively as possible and to allow partial reimbursement requests to be processed without rejection, the Merchant Navy Directorate points out that reimbursement requests are "individual" and that requests from minors must be presented by the legal guardian and accompanied by the necessary documents, i.e. the family file of marital status or an extract from the birth certificate.

If travelling with a foreign passport, the applicant must download the application in PDF format, the first three pages of the passport and the page stamped by the Border Police, in addition to proof of Moroccan nationality.

If travelling on a Moroccan passport, the applicant must download his or her foreign residence permit to prove entitlement to partial refund. Moreover, the return tickets to be downloaded must be issued by the company with which the trip was made, which must include the name of the applicant and the exact amount of the trip made, according to the statement released by the Ministry.

Also, "if the traveller chooses to be reimbursed by bank transfer, he/she is invited to enter his/her personal bank account number and to download the RIB from his/her account opened with a Moroccan bank".

On the other hand, it points out that files containing errors will be rejected by the system, so the Ministry insists that MREs should check the information entered accurately before sending the file and the corresponding application.

In an extraordinary way, Operation Marhaba 2021 has been marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, which, given the strong reception by the Kingdom of Moroccans living abroad, has adopted strong health control and prevention measures to prevent its spread and a spike in contagions.