Morocco’s Interior Minister Abdelouafi Laftit said the number of people pursued and arrested in line with the health emergency imposed by the authorities has amounted to 81,000, an average of 2,000 person per day.
“This is not a large number compared with other countries,” he said during a meeting held by a parliamentary committee on Wednesday.
He ruled out things returning to normal soon, noting that people shall live with the pandemic for a longer period of time.
MPs expressed concern over the rising number of arrests, yet the Minister explained that they are aimed at forcing people to stay at home.
Laftit said the mobile application that enables security men at observation points to control and track the movement of citizens is only temporarily used by the General Directorate of National Security.
Refuting certain reports, he stressed this application is 100 percent Moroccan and supervised by Moroccan figures.
The application “won’t store information,” he affirmed, adding that it was used after receiving approval from the National Control Commission for the Protection of Personal Data (CNDP) and will not be exploited for other purposes.
On the gradual relaxation of the lockdown, Laftit said the government is preparing several possible scenarios and measures that will be announced on time depending on how the pandemic is curbed.
Each country has taken different measures in fighting the coronavirus, which confirms that the world was not ready for this pandemic, the Minister said.
“Most important is to spare our country more victims and economic losses,” he added.
Regarding Moroccans who were stranded in the cities of Ceuta and Melilla, the Minister said “measures will be taken to ensure their return.”
He urged people to have confidence in the measures taken by the state to fight the pandemic.
