The Spanish Minister of the Interior visited the security arrangements set up in the Port of Algeciras

Almost 420,000 people have travelled to Morocco in the first month of Operation Crossing the Strait of Gibraltar

AFP/JORGE GUERRERO - Thousands of Moroccan nationals working and living in Europe cross the Strait of Gibraltar on their way back to spend their holidays in Morocco

The Diplomat

11 de julio de 2023 (12:15 h.)

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The Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, visited the special security and civil protection device deployed in the Port of Algeciras during Operation Crossing the Strait 2023 (OPE-23).

According to data from the Ministry of the Interior, the OPE, which runs from 15 June to 15 September, until this past Sunday has already registered 1,876 boat movements and the movement of 419,500 passengers and more than 101,000 vehicles.

Grande-Marlaska toured the facilities of the port of Cadiz, the port with the highest passenger and vehicle traffic of the seven port facilities involved in the OPE during the summer period: Alicante, Almeria, Malaga, Motril, Tarifa and Valencia. Algeciras has registered 1,322 boat rotations, 70% of the total, and has transported 236,000 passengers, 56% of the trips, and more than 64,000 vehicles, 63% of the total.

The visit concluded with a brief meeting with the Consul General of Morocco in Algeciras, Mohamed Rafaoui, and with the representative of the Mohammed VI Foundation, which provides support to Moroccan citizens who cross the Strait of Gibraltar every year.

The minister was accompanied during the tour, among other authorities, by the sub-delegate of the Government in Cádiz, José Pacheco; the undersecretary of the Ministry of the Interior, Isabel Goicoechea; the director general of Civil Protection and Emergencies, Francisco Ruiz Boada, and the president of the Bay of Algeciras Port Authority, Gerardo Landaluce.

Thousands of citizens of Maghrebi origin cross Spain every year to go to and return from their countries of origin during the summer period. The security arrangements for Operation Crossing the Strait 2023 were activated on 15 June and are made up of 19,441 police officers, 21.4% more than in the 2022 OPE, the first after two years of pandemic, in the midst of the recovery of bilateral diplomatic relations and in which more than three million North Africans passed through Spain.