España y Marruecos ultiman los preparativos para reanudar la Operación Paso del Estrecho

The Spanish and Moroccan delegations are continuing bilateral negotiations to deepen the common roadmap outlined on 8 April, the date on which the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, travelled to Rabat to hold an audience with King Mohammed VI. That meeting, preceded by the recognition of the Moroccan autonomy plan for Western Sahara as the "most serious, realistic and credible" basis, put an end to the protracted diplomatic crisis that had opened since the entry into Spain of the leader of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, and marked the beginning of a new stage of cooperation.

This Thursday it was time to finalise the last details of Operation Crossing the Strait of Gibraltar (OPE) 2022. Included in the fifth paragraph of the joint declaration issued by the parties in April, the plan for the reopening of maritime and port transit "will be finalised in the coming weeks", according to the Ministry of the Interior, after two years inoperative. In 2020, Morocco suspended the operation due to the COVID-19 crisis, and in 2021 it did the same, citing the same reasons, although the diplomatic rift was still latent at the time.

The under-secretary of the Ministry of the Interior, Isabel Goicoechea, and the director of Migration and Border Surveillance of Morocco, Khalid Zerouali, co-chaired in Rabat the Spanish-Moroccan Joint Commission in charge of the preparations to reactivate the 2022 OPE. The joint working group on this matter last met in Madrid on 21 April 2019, three years ago. Today it was the Moroccan capital that hosted the negotiations.

Goicoechea described Operation Crossing the Strait as an "example of good coordination between neighbouring countries", which until two years ago had been carried out uninterruptedly since 1986. The parties are finalising the details of the Special Civil Protection Plan for this year's OPE, according to the Interior Ministry. The last time this took place, almost three and a half million people and some 800,000 vehicles crossed the Strait of Gibraltar between 15 June and 15 September.

The Undersecretary of the Interior highlighted the logistical and security challenges posed by the operation. Morocco, for its part, assures that the measures adopted "will be based on several components related to fluidity, security and safety, assistance and proximity measures, communication actions, and prevention and surveillance measures according to the epidemiological context".

The dialogue focused on the operational agreements established by the parties, very similar to those adopted in 2019. In addition, during the meeting chaired by an image of the Alaouite monarch, the fleet plans to be implemented to ensure adequate supply for the daily traffic of passengers and vehicles were discussed, as well as the operational arrangements that both countries will put in place to ensure the development of the 2022 Operation Crossing the Strait of Gibraltar.

In this regard, the Ministry of the Interior has informed of the establishment of a security mechanism made up of 16,000 National Police and Civil Guard agents. A security contingent that will also be reinforced by an exchange of information "to continue working on aspects such as the management of the days of greatest influx, the possibility of exchanging tickets and other conditions of the maritime crossings", according to the Ministry of the Interior.

There are still some details to be finalised before a minimum agreement can be reached for the resumption of Operation Crossing the Strait of Gibraltar, but the negotiations are close to completion, unlike the reopening of the border crossings of the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla. The joint working group maintains differences over the establishment of a new commercial customs office in Ceuta, announced by President Sánchez, however, the Alaouite Kingdom would not have objected to the inclusion of the autonomous cities in the 2022 OPE, according to El Faro de Ceuta.

The dialogue between Madrid and Rabat will continue in the coming weeks with the aim of materialising the commitments detailed in the joint declaration. This Friday, the Moroccan capital will host a new meeting of the permanent Spanish-Moroccan group on Migrations, which will be co-chaired by the Secretary of State for Migrations, Jesús Javier Perea, and Goicoechea's interlocutor, Khalid Zerouali. A face-to-face meeting in which both the Secretary of State for Security, Rafael Pérez, and the Secretary of State for Foreign and Global Affairs, Ángeles Moreno, will be present, according to the Ministry of the Interior.