Government to open investigation on Fez building collapse

Moroccan Premier Abderrahmane Youssoufi said on Monday that the government will open an investigation to determine the responsibilities in the collapse last week of a building that killed 47 people and injured 40 others in Fez, central Morocco.

Youssoufi, who was attending a meeting of the local urban council summoned following the incident, decried the illegal housing in Fez and called for earnest efforts to settle housing problems in the city.

A project is already under way to provide lodgings to illegal housing dwellers, Youssoufi said, recalling that 1,683 households will benefit from the project worth $1.6 million.

Illegal housing proliferates at high rates in Morocco. Some 25,000 illegal lodgings-- accommodating 450,000 households-- crop up every year around Moroccan urban centers.

Relatedly, MPs at the Chamber of Advisors (upper house of parliament) blamed Morocco's housing problems on the administrative red tape and corruption.

The failure to implement already-existing laws on housing and corruption are behind the various housing ailments, the MPs said at a meeting with minister of urbanism and housing.