Melilla’s porteadoras cross the border between Spain and Morocco up to five times a day, carrying loads of up to 90 kilograms. Every day at 7am hundreds of Moroccan women –mostly widows and divorcées- have come across the border of this Spanish enclave on the African coast for work as ‘atypical smugglers’. Once released from the checkpoint, they will race to pick up their loads in Spain for delivery to Morocco. They carry bolts of delicate fabric for wedding dresses, bound for markets in the rest of Africa. Three hundred meters away, Moroccan trucks idle, waiting to be loaded with cheap Spanish exports. Each porteadora is paid for every bundle of cloth delivered. The fabrics weigh over 90 kilos are pay only 3-4€ (Less few dirhams porteadoras have to give to Moroccan border police for each trip). Every year, more than €1.4 billion ($1.8 billion) worth of goods stagger into Morocco across the borders of Melilla and Ceuta, another Spanish territory on the Moroccan coast.
