Spanish Melilla deputy demands 'reciprocity agreement' with Morocco for the passage of goods

Spanish Popular Party (PP) deputy in Melilla and second vice president of the city assembly, Daniel Conesa Mínguez, is demanding a “reciprocity agreement” between Spain and Morocco, to regulate the passage of goods of a personal nature at the Moroccan, Ceuta, and Melilla borders.

During a press conference held on May 23, Daniel Conesa Mínguez announced the presentation of a motion to the Assembly of Melilla, to establish this reciprocity agreement, “after the People’s Party received complaints from citizen passengers denouncing the requisitioning of their purchases by the Moroccan police.”

“Purchases intended for their relatives on the other side of the border or for their own consumption, requisitioned as if it were smuggling,” reports Europa Press.

Daniel Conesa believes that “in the regulation of the traveler that exists in any border area, people who go from Melilla to Morocco should be able to pass, as long as it is not a commercial expedition.”

El Partido Popular, presentará una moción para solicitar que se eliminen las tasas desproporcionadas que Correos está cobrando por la gestión del IPSI.

Sin reciprocidad en la frontera: “Ni un Danone de Melilla a Marruecos, ni un tomate de Marruecos a Melilla”?@DConesaMinguez pic.twitter.com/LW3KiCJlzo

— PP de Melilla (@PPMelilla) May 23, 2022

The deputy did not fail to mention the economic risk of these confiscations on the businesses of Melilia, possibly abandoned in favor of Moroccan establishments, concluding that “if there is no reciprocity to pass even a yogurt to Morocco, then even a tomato should not enter here.”

Official sources had previously told Hespress that Moroccan authorities “will never allow” the crossings of Bab Ceuta and Beni Ansar to become corridors for smuggling activities, as the two enclaves prepared to reopen on May 17.

The regional director of customs in the Tangier-Tetouan-Al Hoceima region, Abdel Hakim Zahaf, had then stated on May 19 that the passage of goods at the border between Ceuta and Morocco would not resume, adding that “there will be no indulgence with the passage of goods of all nature, whether personal or commercial.”

Following the reopening of the enclave’s borders with Morocco, travelers from sides have been flocking border crossings, after a long two-year closure. In anticipation, Moroccan authorities deployed significant securty to the crossings, to ensure the respect of the terms of the reopening.