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Rabat – Spain is under pressure after Morocco decided to exclude several Spanish ports from the 2021 Marhaba Operation, a program that welcomes Moroccans residing abroad (MREs) annually.
Morocco decided to resume flights on June 15 and also allowed MREs to enter Morocco if they present a COVID-19 vaccination certificate or a negative PCR test.
Morocco’s decision to exclude Spanish ports from the Marhaba initiative stirred frustration within the Spanish government, with Spanish media outlets and politicians worrying that the move signals a deepening of the diplomatic rift between Rabat and Madrid.
The secretary-general of the nationalist, far-right Vox party in the Spanish chamber of deputies, Macarena Olona, was among politicians who cited the negative repercussions Morocco’s decision is set to have on Spain.
She said that the Spanish port of Motril alone will lose more than €20 million after Morocco’s decision to exclude Spanish ports from the process of receiving the Moroccan community in Europe.
“This is without talking about the rest of the ports in Algeciras, Tarifa, Malaga, Almeria, Alicante, Ceuta, and Melilla,” Olona explained.
The issue will also impact all businesses in southern Spain.
The mayor of Algeciras, Jose Ignacio Landaluce, also expressed his frustration at Morocco’s move.
He described the decision as a “disaster” in an interview with ABC.
“That there is no OPE [Operation Crossing the Strait], is a disaster.”
He said that the decision will impact Spain’s economy, especially Spanish ports’ revenues.
The number of Moroccans who cross Spain annually to come back to Morocco for summer vacation ranges between 2.5 million to 3 million.
The head of the Spanish Ports Authority, Jose Garcia Fuentes, also said he was shocked by Morocco’s decision.
He explained in a statement to Granada Hoy that the city of Granada alone will lose about 3,000 jobs.
Also expressing concerns was the Spanish Workers Commission (CCOO), with the organization urging Morocco to include Spanish ports in the transit process.
The union, which is the largest trade union in Spain, said that the situation will deepen the crisis that Spanish companies have had to navigate due to COVID-19.
The union said the decision will impact workers in fleets of shipping companies, transporting passengers, and private security for ports, freight, and road transport, hotels, etc.
The Federation of Citizen Services (FFSC) also called on Morocco to include Spanish ports so as “not to inflict further damage” on already suffering companies and workers.
The head of the CCO Federation of Citizen Services in Campo de Gibraltar, Miguel Alberto Diaz, said Morocco’s decision extends the “agonizing situation experienced by hundreds of companies and endangers the present and future of thousands of jobs in ports.”
He added, “If this unfair decision persists, we demand that the European Union review the regime of important aid that it sends to the Moroccan administration to deter this policy of permanent provocation to Spain, contrary to any criteria of countries that have been considered in the history as a relationship more than good neighborliness.”
The Moroccan decision comes amid escalating tensions between Spain and Morocco.
Morocco expressed its astonishment after Spain controversially offered to host Polisario leader Brahim Ghali for medical care.
Spain allowed Ghali to enter its territories using false documentation. And despite the popular outcry against Ghali’s presence in Spain, including complaints by victims who documented the Polisario’s involvement in various crimes, the highest Spanish cited lack of evidence to dismiss all the charges against Ghali.
The court argued that there was no solid evidence to hold Ghali accountable for charges of genocide, rape, torture, kidnapping, and illegal detention.
After his medical discharge and court acquittal, Ghali left Spain, deepening tensions between Morocco and the Iberian country.
The North African country has not yet commented on Spain’s decision to allow Ghali to travel back to Algeria, but an overwhelming majority of politically active Moroccans are calling for the rupture of diplomatic ties with Spain.
