Tan Tan is a small town where most of the inhabitants are without income, apart from a few retired members of the FAR or former immigrant workers who keep the trade going.

Until 2010, the cost of living was among the lowest in the Kingdom. Rent was affordable, and the town's geographical position, which makes it an unavoidable passage to the southern regions of the country, facilitates the supply of fruit and vegetables at reasonable prices. This position also allows many traffickers of subsidised products to store their goods in a town near the areas where basic necessities are part of these subsidised products.

But lately, neither the proximity to areas with subsidised products nor the town's geographical location works in favour of the populations of the Tan Tan province, where food prices are the same as in Rabat, Fès, or Casablanca and where incomes are very low, if not non-existent. This situation, added to the layoffs of almost all its staff by the province's largest employer, the OMNIUM Maroc group, is considered here as the primary cause of the increase in delinquency that the town has experienced in recent weeks.

When one knows that the price of 1 kilo of tomatoes has reached 10 dirhams, that of potatoes and onions exceeds 5 DH, and that sardines are sold for 6 dirhams per kilo, one wonders how the families with very low or even no income, who make up the majority of households in Tan Tan, live.