The Government has taken advantage of the military flights that carry rescue teams to Morocco to remove 36 Spaniards

Albares conveys Spain's willingness to help in the reconstruction when the time comes

The Government is taking advantage of the military flights with which rescue teams have been flown to Morocco to help in the work after Friday's earthquake in the neighboring country to rescue some Spaniards in especially complicated situations, but an evacuation operation itself is not being considered. bliss. Specifically, a total of 36 Spaniards have been repatriated.

This has been indicated by the acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, in statements to Tele5 collected by Europa Press, in which he has again indicated that so far there is no evidence that there is any Spaniard among the more than 2,000 dead and more than 2,000 injured in the earthquake.

As indicated, in the two military flights that have taken UME troops and other rescuers to Morocco, 36 Spaniards have been repatriated. These are, as he has pointed out, "Spanish people in most peremptory and urgent need" who, in addition to being in the place, are having difficulties finding a flight and accommodation and are accompanied by minors.

In this case, the minister clarified, neither Spain nor any of its partners is considering a "repatriation as such" since these are only carried out when there is a "material impossibility to leave a country due to a war scenario" or as happened in Niger after the coup d'état at the end of July "for political reasons it has been decided to close the borders".

In Morocco, airspace has not been closed and airlines are operating normally. What has been done, Albares indicated, is to talk to both Iberia and Binter so that they send planes with greater capacity for the flights they operate and in the case of the former it has made fares and flight changes more flexible.

In addition, Foreign Affairs has moved a consular unit to the neighboring country that is helping Spaniards find accommodation, change their flights or direct them by land or rail to Tangier, from where they can take a ferry to Algeciras or Tarifa.

On the other hand, he has indicated that the 18,000 Spaniards residing in Morocco are "totally under control and are perfectly well" and as for the hundreds who were in the Alawite kingdom for different reasons when the earthquake occurred, all are well except "two in transit with whom it has not been possible to establish telephone contact".

However, Albares has stressed that both the Embassy and the different consulates and also the Ministry's consular emergency unit are in constant contact with hospitals, police stations and the authorities and "there is no Spaniard." Thus, he has admitted that "as the hours go by" he is "more hopeful that this good news will be the final one" and therefore there will be no Spanish victims in the tragedy.

In statements on La1, reported by Europa Press, the minister indicated that he is in "permanent contact" with his Moroccan counterpart, Nasser Bourita, to understand the needs that Morocco has at all times and to be able to address them, while highlighting that Spain it was "the first country to send teams to the field."

For now, he specified, "what they are asking us for are teams specialized in search and rescue of people in natural disasters and canine units as much as possible for tracking."

The process "will have several stages" and Spain, the minister noted, is already preparing for them. "This is the moment of search and rescue, of trying to save as many lives as possible, then will come the moment of reconstruction and I have already informed the Moroccan authorities that Spain, if Morocco requests it, will also be in the moment of reconstruction," he noted.

On the other hand, he has encouraged Spaniards to continue traveling for tourism to the neighboring country, although not to the areas that, like Marrakech, have been the most damaged by the powerful earthquake. "There are many areas that are not affected by the earthquake and therefore you can travel to them perfectly," he said.