by SUZANNE DALEY
Melilla, Spain — It was 9 a.m., and hundreds of Moroccan women, many of them older, were already at work, bent over and straining, trying to inch up the hill to the border post here. Many had bundles as big as washing machines lashed to their backs.
Dozens of others, too afraid to go farther, waited off to the side with their packages, exhaustion and defeat on their faces. Up ahead, men in yellow baseball caps, some using their belts as whips, tried to control the surging crowds with little success.
“My children need to eat,” said one of the women, Rkia Rmamda, who was watching the mayhem and sobbing. “What am I going to do? I need to work.”
There is probably no more abrupt economic fault line in the world than the fences that surround Melilla and Ceuta, Spain’s enclaves on the North African coast. Here just a few rows of chain link and barbed wire separate the wealth of Europe from the despair of Africa. So faint a barrier it is, and so tempting to breach, that migrants from Africa regularly try to swarm the defense. The latest attempt was a coordinated assault by about 800 people who tried to scale the fences on Friday.
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A Weight on Moroccan Women’s Shoulders PHOTO/Samuel Aranda/The New York Times
But the women like Mrs. Rmamda, known as “mule ladies,” are among the lucky few Moroccans who live in the region immediately surrounding Melilla (pronounced meh-LEE-yah) who do not need a visa to cross the border. Over the last two decades, they have turned the privilege to their meager advantage, hauling goods like used clothing, toilet paper and small electronics into Morocco from Spain, sometimes earning as little as three euros per trip, sometimes as much as 10. Most make no more than 15 or 20 euros a week, or $20 to $27.
“The difference in terms of income between Spain and Morocco is between 17 to 20 times,” said José María López Bueno, the president of Promesa, which supports economic development in Melilla. He added, “It’s the biggest difference in incomes across any border.”
About 300 million euros worth of goods (about $412 million) arrive in Melilla’s port each year, virtually all headed for Morocco and beyond. But first, women like Mrs. Rmamda, will carry them on their backs — or try to roll them uphill — for about a quarter-mile so Moroccan traders can avoid import taxes. Any package hand-carried to Morocco is considered luggage and therefore duty free.
The New York Times for more
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