Thousands of Moroccan Travelers Flood Spanish Ports for Annual Summer Return

The Port Authority of Algeciras (APA) has reminded on its Twitter account the importance for travelers to have a round-trip ticket before entering the ports of Algeciras and Tarifa, deploring that thousands of MREs and nearly 1,000 vehicles arrived without a ticket in these ports over the weekend, which delayed boarding.

Between June 15 and July 15, 156,776 people and 53,426 vehicles left Ceuta for Morocco, while 113,305 people and 34,160 vehicles traveled in the opposite direction, from Morocco to Ceuta, as part of the Marhaba Operation, according to the government delegation of Ceuta. According to these data, 357,667 checks were carried out at the border by the State security forces and bodies, compared to 338,354 last year.

The new mechanism put in place by the delegation to avoid traffic jams during the Marhaba Operation was tested on an experimental basis last Friday and will come into service on July 28. The delegation is keen to facilitate the transit of MREs and that the normal course of the Marhaba Operation does not prevent the inhabitants of the autonomous city from going to the peninsula for work reasons.