Moroccan Diaspora Transit Through Ceuta Drops 10% in Annual Marhaba Operation

More than 500,000 Moroccans living abroad and some 130,000 vehicles have already transited through the port of Ceuta to go to Morocco, respectively 10% less than in 2022, announced on Sunday Francisco Ruiz Boada, the general director of civil protection, hailing the "fluidity" of this year’s Marhaba Operation.

According to El Faro de Ceuta, this decline is mainly due to the pricing policies of the shipping companies that have raised the prices of boat tickets linking Algeciras to Tangier and Ceuta. As a result, the boarding area remained empty and the boats barely reached 30% of their capacity on Sunday, a day that was nonetheless announced as "critical".

The government delegate, Rafael García, for his part appreciated the "extraordinary" fluidity of the 2023 Marhaba Operation at the port and border of Ceuta, thanking Morocco for the "excellent collaboration" noted this year.

"We have nearly 1.1 million people in the outward phase, and if we continue at this pace, we will be close to the 2019 figures, before the pandemic, when nearly 3.3 million people participated in the outward and return phases of the Operation," he added.