Operation "Marhaba" (known in Spain as Operation Crossing the Strait -OPE-) recorded a 16% drop in arrivals of people through Morocco's northern ports compared to 2019, the last year it was organised, with 1,117,736 travellers entering the Maghreb country between 2 June and 29 August.
The government spokesman minister, Mustafa Baitas, advanced this Thursday at the press conference following the Governing Council the first data of the OPE, which officially ends on 15 September.
He said that arrivals and departures of travellers and passenger vehicles until the end of August were down compared to the last operation "Marhaba" ("welcome" in Arabic) of 2019, before the pandemic.
"Marhaba" is an operation that serves to manage the outward and return transit of citizens of Maghrebi origin travelling from several European countries to North Africa during the summer season.
According to Baitas, 270,754 vehicles entered the Maghreb country through the four ports set up in Morocco for the operation (Tangier Med, Tangier city, Nador and Al Hoceima), which represents a drop of 15% compared to 2019.
On the other hand, and in the return phase, a total of 885,465 people embarked from Moroccan ports to Europe, a decrease of 14% compared to 2019, and a total of 197,754 vehicles, representing a drop of 17%.
The port that recorded the most traffic was Tanger Med with the arrival of a total of 673,419 passengers and 177,282 vehicles, and the return of 498,788 travellers and 119,374 vehicles.
This Tuesday, the President of the Government, Aziz Akhannouh, explained that Operation "Marhaba" recorded the transit of a total of 2.8 million people, a figure that also includes passengers who transited through the different airports of the Maghreb country and those who entered and left through the land border with the Spanish cities of Ceuta and Melilla.
In 2019, the last year in which the OPE took place, before the coronavirus pandemic began, a total of 3,242,970 passengers and 760,215 vehicles transited through Spain during this operation, 3% more than the previous year, according to figures from the Spanish Ministry of the Interior.
Operation Marhaba and the OPE resumed this year after two cancelled editions, a decision announced at the meeting in Rabat on 7 April between King Mohammed VI and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, which ended the bilateral crisis after Spain supported Moroccan autonomy for Western Sahara as the best way out of the crisis in the former Spanish colony.
