Visitors travel in Morocco Photo: AFP

Thousands of tourists were stranded in Morocco on March 14 after the kingdom suddenly announced strict border restrictions in response to the coronavirus, leaving travelers stuck at borders, ports and airports.

"We are lost!" said David, an Italian tourist waiting at the closed border with the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in northern Morocco.

Later that day, Rabat announced a suspension of air links with 21 countries including Austria, Denmark, Greece, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland in Europe, as well Turkey and Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Oman, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates.

Africa's Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal, and Canada and Brazil were also in the list.

Morocco had already suspended air, sea and land links with European countries and Algeria on March 13, as well as taking measures to confine citizens to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

Flights to and from Algeria, Spain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal and Italy were suspended "until further notice," while sea links for passengers and Morocco's land borders with Ceuta and a second Spanish enclave, Melilla, were closed.

But France announced that Rabat had agreed to allow repatriation flights for French nationals.

"New flights are being organized to enable [stranded French tourists] to return to France," President Emmanuel Macron tweeted Saturday.

The first flights back to France had already taken off that day, Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said earlier.

The closure of the only land border between Africa and the European Union at Cueta and Melilla saw Spaniards rushing to leave on the evening of March 12, as Moroccan day workers hastily returned in the opposite direction.

The land borders are busiest in summer and the border sees regular traffic throughout the year. Now though a Moroccan police roadblock bars the road towards the border with Cueta. 

David said he tried to go to Spain because links with Italy, a hotspot of the disease, are suspended.

After arriving in Morocco for a motorcycle tour with his partner earlier this month, the 33-year-old Italian was stuck at a service station outside Cueta. 

The border at Cueta, like that at Melilla, was reopened on March 14 only for Spaniards. 

The Spanish embassy in Morocco tweeted that same day that ferries were still operating between the enclaves and mainland Spain.

Its French counterpart also tweeted that "passage [into Ceuta and Melilla] is open to French ferry ticket holders with vehicles."

But except for a few travelers, the normally busy border post near the Moroccan town of Fnideq was deserted.

At the service station, camper vans bearing various European license plates were parked waiting.

"We don't know how long this will last, no one has told us anything," said Rene, a 71-year-old French man, speaking before Le Drian and Macrons' announcements.

"The weather is good here, there's surely fewer cases of coronavirus in Morocco than in France," he said.

Moroccan authorities have reported 38 cases of COVID-19, including one death. France and Spain have together announced more than 900 COVID-19 deaths.

On the Spanish side at Cueta, stuck Moroccans were wondering why their country would not let them back in.

"If I need to get a hotel, who will pay?" asked a man hoping to return home.

At Tangiers port some 30 kilometers to the west, containers and trucks were unloaded as usual but the passenger terminal was completely closed.

The busiest port in North Africa, the facility welcomed 568,000 foreign tourists in 2019, while some 473,000 entered from Cueta and Melilla, according to official figures.

The travel restrictions are causing panic in the kingdom's tourism sector, which accounts for 10 percent of GDP and is a key source of foreign revenues.