Spain Faces $500 Million Loss as Morocco Excludes It from Annual Migrant Return Operation

An exclusion that implies heavy economic consequences. "King Mohammed VI has dealt a heavy blow to Spanish companies with estimated losses of 500 million euros, especially for the Cadiz region where unemployment is hitting 25% of the population hard," writes El Mundo in an opinion piece. A huge shortfall for the Spanish ports traditionally involved in the Marhaba operation, an annual operation that marks the return of nearly 3 million Moroccans residing abroad (MREs) to Morocco to spend the summer vacation.

According to Macarena Olona, a member of the Spanish Congress of Deputies, this exclusion of Spanish ports by Morocco will have a negative impact on the activity of Spanish shipping companies. "Just in Motril, it represents a loss of 20 million euros. It is an activity that has a major economic impact for this city. This exclusion will affect the ports of Algeciras, Tarifa, Malaga, Motril, Almeria, Alicante, Ceuta and Melilla Tragic!" she writes on Twitter.