Morocco’s Border Closure Threatens Annual ’Operation Marhaba’ for Second Year

With the Moroccan borders still closed, the Marhaba Operation could not be carried out this year in cooperation with Ceuta and Melilla. Like last year, Moroccans residing abroad (MREs) will not cross the autonomous cities to spend their summer vacation in Morocco. For health reasons, the Transit Operation was carried out with special flights from various European cities and with two maritime links from France and Italy.

For this edition, the uncertainty is still total. Neither Spain nor Morocco have officially announced the holding of the Marhaba Operation. The delegations of the government of Ceuta and Melilla have also not received any information on this subject so far. "It’s still early," said sources at the Spanish Interior Ministry to El Espanol.

In Morocco, the authorities are considering carrying out the Transit Operation by sea. To this end, they have requested the availability and capacity of ships in order to charter large capacity ships with France and Italy, and possibly with Portugal.