Spain and Morocco agree to reopen the Ceuta and Melilla border for next Tuesday

Spain and Morocco have finally reached an agreement to reopen the land borders with Ceuta and Melilla, closed since March 2020. The Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, made public this Thursday that the border crossings will open from midnight next Tuesday, May 17.

The opening, however, will be carried out gradually "to guarantee public safety and health," as Grande-Marlaska stressed.

First, at midnight between Monday and Tuesday of next week, the steps of El Tarajal, in Ceuta, and Beni Enzar, in Melilla, will be reopened only for citizens and residents of the European Union and for those authorized persons. to circulate in the Schengen area.

From May 31, the transit of cross-border, Moroccan citizens with work authorizations in both autonomous cities with their valid documentation will be allowed.

This group, according to sources familiar with the negotiation, is around 200 people.

In all cases, access will be subject to the health requirements on vaccination against covid-19, Interior says in a note.

For now, the residents of Nador and Tetouan — neighboring Moroccan cities, respectively, of Melilla and Ceuta — are left out of the agreement, who until the arrival of the pandemic were allowed to transit between the two countries without the need for a visa.

Nor has it been specified what will happen with the reopening of the Melilla commercial customs office, unilaterally closed by Morocco in the summer of 2018, and the creation of the Ceuta customs office.

The implementation of commercial customs in the two cities was one of the demands of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a milestone announced as one of the agreements of the new roadmap with Rabat, after Spain backed the Moroccan plans on Western Sahara.

In fact, the opening of commercial customs —and, therefore, of the transit of goods— blocked the negotiation at the beginning of the month.

Grande-Marlaska has limited himself to adding that the negotiations between the two countries will continue in the coming weeks to determine "the following categories of people and goods that will be able to access Ceuta and Melilla through the border with Morocco."

The Interior has also announced this Thursday a reinforcement of the staff of the National Police and Civil Guard in both cities "to guarantee security needs".

The upcoming opening poses a problem for Ceuta, whose border crossings are undergoing refurbishment works.

The border right now is impassable for vehicles at some points, with huge potholes in the road.

The asphalt work was scheduled for the end of next week, according to the schedule provided by the General Directorate of Infrastructure of the Ministry of the Interior, responsible for all the works carried out on the border and its perimeter.

Sources from the Government Delegation of the autonomous city have known the date of the reopening this Thursday and affirm that they are analyzing the situation while awaiting further instructions to find out if the entry of vehicles will be authorized and how pedestrian traffic will be channeled to let them raffle the works.

With the borders closed since March 2020, after the outbreak of the pandemic, both countries had been negotiating to reopen them since the Pedro Sánchez Executive announced its decision in March to support Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara.

With that gesture, later rejected by the Congress of Deputies, Sánchez managed to put an end to the diplomatic crisis opened with Morocco in April last year, after transcending the arrival in Spain, to be treated for covid-19, by Brahim Gali, the leader of the Polisario Front and president of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).

During Holy Week, the talks intensified due to Rabat's alleged intention to reopen the border posts on April 14, in the middle of Holy Thursday.

The conditions did not convince the Spanish authorities, who also complained that there had not been enough coordination with their partners to speed up the resumption of passenger traffic.

The reopening became news in the media in Morocco, but finally it was not consummated.

This Thursday's announcement also comes a month after the start, on June 15, of Operation Crossing the Strait, which should facilitate transit by sea for Moroccan citizens residing abroad during the summer period.

The opening coincides with the dates of the first anniversary of the entry of more than 10,000 people into Ceuta in the face of the passivity of the Moroccan agents,