This year the Ministry of the Interior will arm the Strait Crossing operation (OPE) with more than 19,000 National Police and Civil Guard officers, which is more than 21% more than last year , when the operation was reactivated normally after two years suspended: the first, with the excuse of the coronavirus, and the second, due to the bad diplomatic relations between Spain and Morocco. In 2022, 2,912,283 passengers and 695,487 vehicles crossed the Strait between the two continents.
The OPE, through which thousands of citizens of Maghreb origin cross Spain to go and return to their country of origin during the summer period, will take place from today until September 15, as it has been common in all previous editions. This plan also sets the dates that are expected to be critical due to the massive influx of vehicles and passengers, both in the departure phase, between June 15 and August 15, and in the return phase, from July 15 to September 15.
In this edition, the days marked as critical are June 24, 25, 26 and 27, which are the dates before the Lamb festival, in addition to July 29, 30 and 31 and August 1 . It is also expected that August 29, 30, 31 and September 1 will be the most complicated days.
During these busy days, it is planned that a series of special measures can be applied, such as the interchangeability of tickets, which help to speed up the boarding of passengers as much as possible.
In recent months, Spain and Morocco have held many talks and bilateral meetings between the technical teams involved in the design of the OPE 2023. These preparations culminated on May 17 in Madrid with the meeting of the Spanish-Moroccan Joint Commission, in which the delegations chaired by the undersecretary of the Ministry of the Interior, Isabel Goicoechea, and the director of Migration and Border Surveillance of Morocco, Khalid Zerouali, reiterated the commitment of the two countries to strengthen coordination and the exchange of information.
The Special Plan also establishes a healthcare system, in which the Ministry of Health, the autonomous communities of Andalusia and the Valencian Community, as well as the Spanish Red Cross, collaborate, and which will deal with any need derived from the high concentration of people and vehicles in the boarding areas, especially the critical dates with the highest intensity of passage, reported Interior.
