Thanks to the end of a diplomatic crisis that lasted nearly a year, Morocco has reestablished maritime links with Spain, allowing its nationals living in Europe to once again take the ferry to cross the been in their home country.

“Finally! exults Reda, a 20-year-old Moroccan who has just arrived at the port of Algeciras, in southern Spain, on Wednesday, on the first day of the Spanish operation “Passage du Strait”, which marks the summer return to the country. of the Moroccan diaspora.

Like him, millions of Moroccans in Europe have waited three years to take the “route du bled” and return to  Morocco for the summer by car and ferry via Spain.

For this, Rabat had to decide in mid-April to restore maritime links with Spain after the end of a serious diplomatic crisis lasting almost a year between the two countries bordering the Strait of Gibraltar.

“Last night I couldn’t sleep, I was too excited,” says Reda, a student in Helsinki, Finland, from where he drove with his friend a week ago, crossing Europe diagonally over nearly 4,500 kilometers to join his family in Agadir, in the south-west of Morocco.

With more than 3.3 million travelers and more than 760,000 vehicles in the summer of 2019, the “crossing the strait” or “Marhaba” (Welcome in Arabic) operation is “one of the largest flows of people between continents” in such a short period, according to the Spanish government.

“These are the only two summers [2020 and 2021] of my life that I have not spent in Morocco”, underlines Reda, tap shoes on his feet and bob screwed on his head. Getting out in the car, “it’s almost a tradition for us”.

The crowd expected for the end of June-beginning of July

In the large port complex of Algeciras, Reda is only 14 km from the port of Tangier, Morocco. On Wednesday, we began to see a few cars loaded to the roof and families looking for a shady spot to eat in front of imposing red ferries.

On the other side of the strait, in the port of Tanger-Ville, the arrival went off without a hitch.

“The reception went very well. We were checked but I think it’s good for everyone’s safety. I am in a hurry to start my vacation, however,” Omar told AFP, getting off the “Maria Dolores” ferry, which left Tarifa, another Spanish port.

It was however not yet the crowd, this one is expected for the end of the month and the first weekend of July.

However, this return to normal is by no means obvious.

Maritime links between Spain and Morocco did not resume until mid-April, while Rabat had reopened its ports to other European countries from the summer of 2021.

The border between the two countries had been closed in March 2020 due to the covid-19 pandemic, the closure being then extended by the diplomatic crisis that arose in May 2021 over Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony of which Morocco controls around 80%, but which is also claimed by the Sahrawi separatists of the Polisario Front supported by Algiers.

The crisis ended in March, when Madrid, in an about-face, gave its support to Morocco’s autonomy plan.

“It’s a shame. With these disputes between politicians, those who pay the bill are the people,” indignant Abdel Ghani, 67, a pensioner with dual Spanish and Moroccan nationality who came to buy a ticket.

“You can’t close the border when millions of people want to cross,” comments Reda, who says his parents “went crazy” last summer after Spain was banned from maritime links with Morocco.

This summer, Spanish and Moroccan authorities are expecting even more travelers than in 2019, the last year before the pandemic.

Morocco launched its “Marhaba” operation on June 5 with agents deployed in the Spanish ports of Motril, Almería, and Algeciras, but also in those of Sète and Marseille, in the south of France, and Genoa, in Italy.

But “unfortunately, the money lost” during the more than two years of closure “cannot be recovered”, laments Manuel Piedra, president of the Association of Service Companies of the Bay of Algeciras (AESBA).

Direct and indirect losses amounted to nearly 500 million euros, estimates the association, which represents 90 local businesses, including several shipping companies.

While waiting for his ferry, Reda forgets politics, stares into space and travels back in time: “It reminds me of my childhood, I traveled by car every summer. It’s just awesome!”