Jan 8, 2008

Leaving Morocco

After spending about 30 minutes at Air France's counter with a lady who thought it's ok to complain about how tired she is to a passenger -me-, I made it through the Policeman who asks if you are taking any money with you outside the country. I found a large space with about 5 r 6 double lines of passengers checking their passports out with the Borders police.
My Flight to Paris was supposedly at 7.50am. It was 8.20am and I am still in line waiting to have my passport stamped so I can leave the country. Already at 7.40am, I panicked after I saw those big lines which move at a very slow pace, but few minutes later I realized that there are passengers like me flying to Brussels, Nice, and Paris who are being held by the slow-moving lines just like I am.
Every few minutes, passengers yell at the policemen when they see the Business Class queue moving a lot quicker than ours. Finally, 40 minutes later I made it through the passport check to meet the second hurdle which is the airport security. I gathered my coat, two bags and ran towards gate 23 to catch my flight, but I was out of breath 10 meters later. So I decided to walk and when I got to the plane, it was half empty. The Air france employee at the gate told me that my seat is in the business section. The stupid lady at the counter checked me in, assigned me a seat at the business class, and didn't even bother to tell me. It would have saved me about 30 minutes of wait time at the Passports check.
The pilot announced in French that because of the slow passport check procedure , he has to wait for about a dozen of passengers who got stuck there. But his English announcement he said," We will be taking off as soon as few passengers make it to the plane. Because of the lazy border police, passengers are still stuck at passport checks."
I was not only angry at the arrogant AF Counter lady and the slow moving lines at passport checks, but I am disappointed that Morocco still operates as a police state where the Borders police still has to stamp your passport before you leave causing passengers missed connecting flights, and costing airlines money for being late and spending more time on the Tarmac.

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