Who benefits from the closure of the land border between Algeria and Morocco?

The land border between Morocco and Algeria has been closed since 1994, a quarter of a century ago. It was in August of that year that a French terrorist command composed of seven members of Algerian and Moroccan origin, who had fought in Afghanistan in the ranks of Al Qaeda, committed an attack on the Atlas Hasni hotel in Marrakesh in which two Spanish tourists were killed. King Hassan II, on the basis of probably false reports from his Minister of the Interior Dris Basri, decided to impose a visa on Algerians to travel to Morocco; Algerian President Liamin Zerual not only did the same, but closed the land border between the two countries. Who benefits from this anomaly in the relations between two North African neighbours? In both countries there are beneficiaries and harms.

In Morocco, sectors of the Makhzen that are involved in smuggling, drug trafficking and illegal immigration benefit, using bilateral tension as a justification for their conservative inertia and dirty business. For a quarter of a century, the government of Rabat has been arresting and periodically judging members of these mafias, and carrying out important purges in the ranks of the Royal Gendarmerie, the National Police and the Customs services in this region. 

In addition, and indirectly, the State takes advantage of the closure of borders to justify defence and security budgets and maintain an excessive repressive apparatus. In the last three years Morocco has experienced a 30 per cent increase in the military budget, in 2019 it was 3.3 billion euros, and in 2020 it is expected to reach 4.27 billion euros. Although it is true that the modernization of the Moroccan Army is also due to its international activities in UN peace missions, its role in the fight against terrorism and its desire to play a more important strategic role in the region of the Strait of Gibraltar.

But along with this, there are also sectors in Morocco that are quite badly affected. The bilateral trade sector, the export of agricultural and manufactured products, and of course the tourism sector in the eastern region of Morocco mainly. Industrial and mining projects that could result from bilateral cooperation are also harmed. 

Also suffering from the land closure is a part of the population that has family ties between the two sides of the border. In order to visit their families and friends, Moroccans have to go to Casablanca and Algerians to Algiers to board the planes that will take them to the other country, and then continue their journey by land or air. The distance of a couple of hundred kilometres at most that separates these families, becomes a journey of 2000 kilometres during one or two days. In this quarter century the negative effects on the economy and tourism have been catastrophic in the case of Morocco.

In Algeria, the smuggling and drug trafficking sectors that work together with their neighbours involved in the mafias that operate in the region also benefit. Like Rabat, Algiers has arrested and tried trafficking groups over the years, and has cleaned up the military and police security apparatuses linked to them. 

The Algiers regime, for its part, exploits the tension both to justify the pharaonic military budgets and to have a strong security apparatus, gendarmes, police, customs and special forces in place. In 2019, Algeria spent 9 billion euros on its defence budget, and in 2020 it is expected to increase this, as yet unspecified. While it is true that the main cause of Algeria's pharaonic military budget continues to derive from the conflict in Western Sahara and the geopolitical rivalry with its Moroccan neighbour, the situation on the land border helps to maintain the climate of belligerence. 

On the other hand, it is in the interest of the parasitic economic sector which monopolises imports of consumer products into Algeria that the border be closed; this way this macro business, which benefits businessmen, retired military personnel and government personnel, has a free hand to import agricultural and food products, manufactured goods, and even poultry and sheep consignments, and their derivatives, from Europe, Turkey and China. President Tebboune is keeping a firm hand on the import-import lobbies and is betting on increasing national production as much as possible; but it will still take several years to replace imports.

At a time like the present when Europe is toughening up on the arrival of tourists and (or) North African immigrants, a large part of the population of western Algeria, mostly young people, is banned from visiting Morocco, with no alternative. Tourism with Tunisia has become more widespread, and benefits mainly the population of eastern Algeria.

The political justifications given to explain the closure, with the demagogic resource of humiliated national pride and patriotism, do not convince anyone. Both regimes have maintained the same discourse of blame for the other until the middle of the last decade. But in recent years, King Mohammed VI has shown a long-term vision of the state and has insisted that the border closure makes no sense, proposing different initiatives to end this situation. The regime in Algiers, however, has not yet decided and continues to cling to entrenched positions, favourable to the autarkic economic lobby and the military nomenklatura. The different positions taken by the head of state, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, suggest that the presidency could open the way to a new era in bilateral relations.