The Diplomat
The Government yesterday expressed its respect for Morocco’s decision to suspend Operation Crossing the Strait from Spanish ports for the second consecutive year, which it blamed on the context of the coronavirus pandemic.
“It is a decision that we respect and which comes in the context of a pandemic in which maximum security must be taken,” diplomatic sources told Europa Press yesterday, stressing that the scheme announced by Rabat on Sunday “is similar to that of the previous year”.
Rabat’s decision comes in the midst of the diplomatic crisis unleashed with Madrid, following Spain’s decision to take in the leader of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, for humanitarian reasons in a hospital in Logroño.
In a statement, the Moroccan Foreign Ministry informed late on Sunday that the return of Moroccans living abroad by sea would take place “from the same maritime transit points as last year”. These ports were Sète (France) and Genoa (Italy), leaving out the Spanish ports.
Those who opt for this option to return to Morocco during the summer will have to present a negative PCR at the time of embarkation and will be subjected to another one while on board, “in order to guarantee maximum health security for them and their families”.
Given the short journey times from the southern Spanish ports from which the ferries depart to the Moroccan ports, there would not be time to carry out this second diagnostic test.
The sources consulted stressed that Operation Crossing the Strait is “a pioneering scheme in the world of mass orderly transfer” that has been carried out for years “with great success thanks to the close collaboration of Morocco and Spain”. In 2019, the last year it saw the passage of more than 3.3 million passengers and more than 760,000 vehicles.
“We hope to repeat this on future occasions,” added the diplomatic sources, who framed Rabat’s decision exclusively in terms of the health situation, as was already the case in 2020.
