If, in normal times, everyone complains about taxis and the dangers they pose, it remains the case that complaints and inconveniences become more numerous when they decide to go on strike.

This is what the inhabitants of Laâyoune have learned to their cost since 19 December, the day the drivers of the city's 250 taxis declared a 3-day strike, which they threaten to end with a march to Rabat if the authorities do not take their grievances into account and enter into negotiations with them to find solutions to their problems.

According to a statement of which Libé has a copy, the taxi drivers are asking the authorities to put an end to illegal transport, increase the number of authorisations granted to vehicles intended for taxi use, and regulate the relationship between the holders of urban transport authorisations (licences) and the renters of these authorisations.

Regarding illegal transport, it is carried out in Laâyoune by more than 600 minibuses that defy all prohibitions and roam the city as if in conquered territory.

Armed sometimes with clubs and often with machetes, the drivers of these vehicles have no respect for the code. Whether it is the highway code or civic behaviour, the only code they respect is that of speeding and the lure of profit, without worrying about the many accidents they cause here and there across the city. One cannot say whether the authorities are turning a blind eye to such actions—let us not forget that this type of transport employs several hundred young people—or if they are simply incapable of enforcing the law.

In any case, the taxi drivers are determined to continue the movement, regardless of the users' displeasure.