Nearly three million passengers and 700,000 vehicles have crossed the Strait of Gibraltar this summer, as part of Operation Marhaba or Operation Crossing the Strait 2022 (OPE), “without incident or clash,” says the Spanish Ministry of Interior.
The OPE took place between June 15 and September 15 and ended with a total of 2,912,283 passengers and 695,487 vehicles, for 9,908 ship rotations, having crossed the Strait in both directions.
In what is considered to be the world’s largest movement of passengers and vehicles for a given period, this year’s figures are roughly similar to those of previous years, and were made possible by the vast device mobilized for the occasion from both Morocco and Spain.
The Iberian government has been working at full capacity and has seen the participation of more than 21,000 officials including from the State, autonomous communities, city halls, port authorities, and other institutions and NGOs throughout the Spanish territory.
All participating authorities were coordinated by the Undersecretary of the Spanish Ministry of the Interior, through the General Directorate of Civil Protection and Emergencies of the Department.
As in previous editions, the period of Eid Al Adha has been the peak or peak of the OPE, registering the largest number of vehicles and some traffic jams, according to Spanish data.
In the outbound phase spanning from June 15 to August 15, 349,735 vehicles and 1,430,340 passengers crossed the Strait to Morocco, with 4,691 ship rotations.
As for the ports of departure for the crossing of the Strait of Gibraltar, Algeciras, with 65% of vehicles, was the one with the most traffic, followed by the port of Almeria in Spain.
In the return phase, a total of 1,481,943 passengers and 345,752 vehicles were recorded, for 5,217 ship rotations.
In terms of vehicle traffic, the most popular were Tangier-Med/Algeciras with 40% and Ceuta/Algeciras with 24%, while Melilla accounted for 11% of traffic, a notable decrease from previous seasons.
The balance of passengers of the OPE in Melilla recorded 345,000 passengers compared to 355,354 in 2019 and about 79,000 vehicles, while in 2019 they accounted for 77,093.
The change noted in the Melilla crossing reflects the overall decrease noted this year, primarily due to the current economic crisis initiated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ukrainian conflict, and rising costs of transportation fees and basic goods.
This year’s Operation Marhaba has therefore experienced a downward trend of 16.3% compared to 2019.
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