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* Admissibility date reflects the date the case was officially registered. All other dates pertain to the date in which a stage was completed.
Case Description
The EIB Complaints Mechanism (EIB-CM) received a complaint registered under the case reference SG/E/2023/14 from an individual regarding the Zenata Urban Development Project implemented in the Commune of Ain Harrouda, between Casablanca and Mohammedia in Morocco. The project involves the resettlement of more than 40,000 persons, approximately 70% of whom are low-income people scattered across 17 informal settlements that are to be dismantled under the “Villes sans Bidonvilles”, Morocco’s national programme (the “VSB”).
The complainant lived with his father and brothers on a Zenata beach and owned two beach houses (“cabanons)” developed on concessional state land and subject to expropriation and financial compensation. The RAP for the project foresees that, under certain conditions, Project Affected People (PAP) who lived continuously in a cabanon are subject to reinstallation under the VSB programme at similar conditions than PAP living in the informal settlements.
The complaint contains several allegations concerning the:
· lack of eligibility due to the complainant's marriage after the census of 2012 which sets the cut-off date for the eligible households; and
· precarious living conditions and transition costs of renting an alternative accommodation during the transition phase between the demolition and the reinstallation.
The allegations of the complainant are similar to the main allegations of cases which were subject to two compliance reviews and for which the conclusions reports were published on the EIB-CM’s webpages (see SG/E/2021/08 and SG/E/2022/11A, SG/E/2022/11C, SG/E/2022/18).
During the handling of the complaint, the complainant informed the EIB-CM that two members of his larger family had been considered eligible for the reinstallation and that the family was satisfied. The EIB-CM has closed the case SG/E/2023/14 referring to its conclusions and recommendations issued in the above-mentioned conclusions reports. The EIB-CM will follow up on the implementation of its recommendations by EIB. This case is thus subject to EIB-CM’s monitoring.