FNIDEQ, Morocco —
Morocco and Spain have reopened the land borders between the north African
country and the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, two years after they
were shut due to
COVID-19 restrictions and a major diplomatic row.
اضافة اعلان
The enclaves on the
Mediterranean coast in northern Morocco have the EU’s only land borders with
Africa.
The gates opened
shortly after 11pm local time on Monday night, letting dozens of cars, and
queues of pedestrians pass in both directions.
At the Fnideq
border post, smiles lit up the faces of the travelers crossing to see their
families on the Moroccan side.
“I was stuck for
two years in Ceuta, I’m very happy to be back home,” said Nourredine.
“I am happy that
Morocco and
Spain have restored their relations, it allows us to see our
families,” said one man in his sixties.
The reopening of
the borders of the two enclaves initially remains limited to residents of
Europe’s open-borders Schengen area and their family members.
It will be expanded
to cross-border workers after May 31.
The local economies
on both sides of the borders depend on the crossing of people and goods.
The Ceuta and
Melilla crossings were closed during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic
in March 2020.
The borders became
the focus of a major dispute last year, when Madrid allowed the leader of a
Western Saharan independence movement to be treated for COVID-19 in a Spanish
hospital.
Ten thousand
migrants surged across the Moroccan border into Ceuta as local border forces
looked the other way, a move widely seen as a punitive gesture by Rabat.
In March this year,
Spain moved to end the diplomatic crisis with Morocco by changing its
decades-long stance of neutrality and backing the kingdom’s autonomy plan for
the Western Sahara, which Rabat insists must remain under its sovereignty.
Maritime travel
between the two countries resumed on April 12.
Following their
reconciliation, Morocco and Spain have committed to strengthening cooperation
on irregular migration.
Morocco, which is one of Spain’s major trade partners, plays
a significant role in controlling flows of migrants towards Europe.
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