Week’s holiday turns into three months…
Robin and Manon left Belgium behind for a one week holiday. Three months and a corona crisis further on, they are still overseas. “We’ve been able to go for one walk” they told VRT.
The couple were supposed to be working at a festival in the French Alps, but that was cancelled due to the crisis. “We decided on a holiday far away, in a place without any coronavirus. We left for Morocco on 12 March and three days later the country was in lockdown” says Robin.
82 days the couple have now been staying in Morocco. Initially they were in a camp in the Sahara where there was no internet. They didn’t realise what had happened to the country. Now they are staying with somebody that they met in a supermarket. “We let somebody go in front of us and he gave us his details in case anything went wrong” says Robin.
The couple claim the Belgian embassy was hard to get hold of initially: “There were flights to start off with, but everything was very chaotic. My girlfriend is Dutch. There were repatriation flights, but either for Dutch or for Belgian nationals” says Robin.
The couple then decided to sit it out. They thought the crisis would only last a fortnight.
“We are very fortunate we met the people we did. There is no relaxation of corona measures like in Belgium. Contact with friends and family isn’t permitted. You’re not allowed on the street. One person per building has a permit allowing him to go to the shops. We’ve been for one walk and fortunately the police didn’t stop us”.
The couple doesn’t know when they will get back: “The embassy emailed us to say that new repatriation flights will be organised, but people with health issues will get priority and that is only how it should be” the couple says.