Spain-Morocco Travel Ban Hits Highway Businesses Hard

The companies along the A-66 are bearing the brunt of the effects of Morocco’s cancellation of the Marhaba Operation, effectively excluding Spanish ports. The La Maya service station in the province of Salamanca, for example, which used to sell 150 sandwiches in no time during this period, is now struggling to use up its daily stock. "Look, we had to bring the price down to one euro because there is little time before they expire," explains Lorenzo Colomo, owner of the commercial complex, to the newspaper El Pais.

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

According to official Moroccan sources, the Marhaba Operation was canceled for health reasons. But for Spanish players, this decision, which considerably affects the Spanish economy, is a sanction by Morocco against their country, in view of the diplomatic tensions that arose after the reception of Brahim Ghali in a hospital in Logroño. For José Ignacio Landaluce, the mayor of Algeciras, the cancellation of the Transit Operation will result in losses of around 500 million euros for the shipping companies and partner companies of the port of the city, through which 3.34 million Moroccans transited in 2019.

"If 740,000 vehicles passed through Spain in 2019, we expected more in 2021, as many Moroccans in Europe have not seen their relatives for two years," explains Nacho Rabadán, general manager of the Spanish Confederation of Service Station Employers, who specifies that if the Marhaba Operation had taken place, the MREs would have spent at least 85 million euros on Spanish roads, and mainly on the A-66 where traffic is smoother and without toll booths, allowing them to quickly reach Algeciras.

To read: Morocco’s Port Exclusion Costs Spanish Companies $500 Million in Transit Revenue

The losses due to the cancellation of the Marhaba Operation are estimated at 25 million euros in Castile and Leon and 9 million euros in Salamanca. Lorenzo Colomo, the promoter of the La Maya service station, estimates the losses of his two companies at around 800,000 euros. But he is counting on the passage of MREs through the port of Portimao in Portugal, 170 kilometers from Huelva, to replenish his coffers. "If they launch the link with Portugal, they could save the A-66," says Colomo, who is also president of the Regional Federation of Castile and Leon Associations of Service Stations.

In some hotels in Extremadura, an 80% drop in bookings has already been noted. Although the line with Portimao will be launched, many MREs have already chosen to pass through the ports of Sète in France or Genoa in Italy, or to take Royal Air Maroc flights to reach the kingdom.