If the problem of these clandestine “guardians”, sometimes threatening, even violent, is nothing new, the video of the attack on a motorist has inflamed social networks in recent weeks. In both countries, the authorities claim to do everything possible to eradicate the phenomenon.
Like every summer, fake car park guards are a scourge in the Maghreb. Lack of respect towards motorists, insults, vandalized cars, or, even worse, sometimes fatal physical attacks… Self-proclaimed car park guards have no limits. “Parkingueur” in Algeria, “3assas” (“guardian”, in Arabic) or “mol gilet” (“people with vests”) in Morocco, they rule the roost during the summer months. Any driver can become their target: tourists and vacationers, of course, but also locals accustomed to parking all year round in spaces suddenly transformed into paying zones during the summer season.
In both countries, illegal parking guarding has become a real business. All you have to do is park your car to see these young men appear out of nowhere, whose “broken face” reflects their feisty temperament. In Algeria, the price of daily parking, which was still 100 dinars (67 euro cents at the official rate, 50 euro cents on the parallel market) a few years ago, has risen to 200 dinars in the most more popular (i.e. 1.34 euro, or 1 euro on the parallel market), while the Smic amounts to 20,000 dinars (135 euros).
“I earn an average of 6,000 dinars a day,” explains Ahmed, a parking worker in Algiers, while Karim, in Béjaïa, admits getting an average of 3,000 dinars daily. After such a season, they won’t need to work anymore…until next summer. The amounts are identical among Moroccan neighbors, who complain about the extortion they suffer in the summer season when they want to park, while these car parks are free all the rest of the year.
“Five, ten dirhams, sometimes more, demanded by improvised parking attendants as soon as you park your car in Morocco on the public road. No parking meter, resources that benefit neither the municipalities nor the inhabitants…”, is indignant Nassira El Moaddem, journalist at France Inter and for the program Stopping images, on the social network X (formerly Twitter), after having relayed the video of a man testifying to his attack in Agadir. Omar Nouib, owner of the agricultural company Semapro, said he was beaten up in August 2023 after refusing to pay 30 dirhams for a place. “I was covered with blows [by] a man who must have been 2 meters and 140 kilos,” he lamented.In the video, he challenges Mustapha Bouderka, first vice-president of the municipal council of Agadir, to put an immediate end to these practices.
Boycott calls
In Morocco, a #boycottmoulgilet hashtag was launched on social networks, gaining more than 13 million views. Accounts in this name have been created and are followed by nearly 35,000 people. It is the second most searched hashtag when typing the word “boycott” on TikTok, where hundreds of videos of users protesting against these scams are posted.
Several similar altercations ended in tragedy. In August 2018, a vacationer was killed by a parking lot in the wilaya of Béjaïa, Algeria, after he refused to pay for his parking space near Lota beach. In August 2019, a young man died in Saidia, Morocco. His argument with a “moul vest” was about the price of parking. In 2021, it was a “3assas” who lost his life after an altercation with one of his “colleagues” concerning the sharing of a parking lot, in Fez.
Even when things don’t go that far, these mobile parking meters give vacationers hell. For fear of reprisals, motorists prefer to capitulate. Amel, a Frenchwoman of Algerian origin, was confronted with this situation during her holidays in Algiers. “Even if you don’t want to pay, you are forced to do so for fear of seeing your car scratched,” she says. By going to the beach of Aïn Taya, Amel did not want to give in to this system where the prices do not obey any logic and differ according to the place of parking. “How would I know if these men aren’t setting prices based on the motorist’s face, the make of their car, or even by seeing my French license plate?” she argues. The car parkers can certainly not force the drivers to pay for their place, but, out of revenge,
Often considered as thugs by the inhabitants, these young people do not hesitate to use threats, mainly towards the elderly and the fairer sex, who are forced to pay exorbitant amounts. “We have organized operations against these illegal parking workers, explains Rafik, a police officer for eight years in the wilaya of Béjaïa. Some were delinquents, selling and reselling drugs. In parking lots, they are usually armed with sticks, iron bars and knives. “Several of them, arrested during patrols, were brought before the courts,” adds Samir, former police commissioner in Béjaïa.
With or without permission
Clandestine car park wardens find it quite easy to carry out this illegal activity: no need to study, no taxes to pay, no need to declare yourself, it’s a “job” without law. “It’s their summer job for them,” says Samir. They are often thugs who have no other perspective than this clandestine work,” he adds.
Scarred faces, stern looks, guards can be intimidating. They are also well aware of the image they project. This is the case of Karim, the parking worker from Béjaïa, 29 years old and in the “trade” for four years. “I did two years in prison for theft a few years ago, but that doesn’t mean I’m a savage or that I’m violent. Unfortunately, this image sticks to our skin and we cannot detach ourselves from it, he regrets. I don’t have any degrees. I looked for any job, without result. There is no other way out for us. It is vital. I work to support my family, not for fun.”
To be able to legally set up in a car park, a candidate for guarding must submit a request to the town hall for the operation of a public space with a view to creating a guarded car park for parking vehicles. Amount: between 20,000 and 50,000 dinars in Algeria, and the equivalent in Morocco. Unsurprisingly, the approved guards complain: they pay fees to the town hall and see their work taken away by young people who have no authorization.
“If a guard asks you to pay for your place and he does not have a plate around his neck showing that he is affiliated with the town hall, do not [him] give anything”, warns a sworn “moul vest”, on the national channel Le 7 TV. Those who work within a legal framework wear a yellow vest and give a ticket to customers.
Reinforced repression
After these various incidents, this traffic becomes more and more controlled. In Morocco and Algeria, laws have recently been passed. In 2022, under the leadership of President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, the provisions of Ordinance No. 66-156 were reinforced by Law No. 21-14. “Shall be punished by imprisonment of six months to two years and a fine of 25,000 DA to 200,000 DA, or one of these two penalties, anyone who exploits, for consideration and without authorization from the authority administrative authority, a public road or part of a public road or a public or private space as parking for vehicles. “A reform that would have” calmed the violence of the parking lot workers”, confides Rafik, the aforementioned police officer. “This year, and after the introduction of the new laws,
In Morocco, measures have been taken in Marrakech, where the authorities installed, in 2020, around a hundred signs at the entrance to the city’s car parks, notifying the prices set by the municipality. In Al Hoceima, in the north of the country, Sara describes “a radical change” in her city of birth. The car parks are now well delimited and regulated. “We have more confidence since then. By receiving a ticket after each payment and seeing the certification plates on the goalkeepers’ vests, we don’t feel ripped off and we know to whom we are giving our money,” she underlines.
In 2021, Noureddine Boutayeb, then Minister Delegate to the Minister of the Interior, indicated that the responsibility for controlling and supervising car parks had been assigned to local elected officials. Some large Moroccan cities have put in place modern mechanisms for managing the parking service on public roads, which would have made it possible to put an end to illicit practices while offering their perpetrators the possibility of accessing employment within structures approved and governed by the labor code. This was obviously not enough, as shown by the attack on Omar Nouib in August 2023.
