Rabat – Over 1.5 million passengers traveled to Morocco via the Spanish ports of Algeciras and Tarifa between June 15 and August 15, the Spanish agency Europa Press reported on Wednesday, adding that this represented an increase of 10.8% on the same period last year.
The same applied to vehicle traffic, with a total of 390,736 vehicles departing from Spain to Morocco during the said period, an increase of 11.7% from the previous year, the report said.
According to the Spanish agency, the return phase, which began on August 15, was also very busy, with 519,653 passengers departing from Morocco, representing a 2% increase over the same period in 2022.
In a press release issued on August 4, the Moroccan Ministry of Transport and Logistics announced that over 1.2 million passengers and 280,000 vehicles had passed through Moroccan ports between June 5 and July 31, as part of the 2023 Marhaba operation.
These figures correspond to respective increases of 21% for passengers and 14% for vehicles compared with the same period last year.
The ministry also stated that the transit operation was proceeding “under good conditions” in the various Moroccan ports, pointing out that during the days of July 29, 30 and 31, the ports saw exceptional traffic in the entry phase, with 117,042 passengers and 29,078 cars registered.
One of the passengers was Mohammed, a Moroccan who lives in Italy. Before embarking on his journey across the Straits while still in Algeciras, he told the news website Le360 that “I’m going to visit my family in Rabat. The most important thing is to see my family, and then let the children enjoy the beach.”
As far as inconveniences are concerned, there were few, if any, in the 2023 Operation Marhaba, which began on June 5, reported Le360.
On site, Mohamed Rafaoui, Consul General of the Kingdom of Morocco in Algeciras, explained to the same media outlet that “we make it easy for our fellow citizens to deal with the administrative formalities at first, and we accompany them all the way to embarkation.”
Read also: Operation Marhaba 2023: Over 12,000 Passengers Transit Through Al Hoceima Port
