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Casablanca – 127,123 individuals and 38,546 vehicles have crossed the border between Morocco and the Spanish enclave of Melilla since it reopened on May 17, according to data reported by the Spanish news outlet EFE.
In terms of the movement of persons, the data for both ways are relatively similar. 63,937 individuals crossed the border into Morocco on foot and 19,929 via automobiles, while a total of 63,186 individuals and 18,617 cars entered Melilla from Morocco between May 17 and June 17.
The weekends have been the busiest days since the reopening of the border, with a record of 6,950 persons entering Melilla in a single day on Sunday, June 12.
These record numbers are not new. During the first week of the reopening of the Melilla-Morocco border crossing, a total of 19,599 persons crossed in both directions.
After a two-year hiatus, and as part of their newfound diplomatic reconciliation, Morocco and Spain reopened last month their border crossings in the enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla to Moroccans working in the two cities.
Since the start of the second phase of the reopening on May 31, only 71 applications for border worker permits have been registered, with 67 being renewals and four being original applications.
Before the closure of the borders in March 2020, Melilla had 1,847 legally-established border workers.
Meanwhile, the Moroccan and Spanish governments agreed that passengers must either provide a vaccine pass or a negative PCR test taken 72 hours before departure to cross the borders. In addition, Moroccan authorities require any passenger crossing the borders to undergo health control and passport stamping procedures.
