Dozens of Moroccans premiered this morning the reopening of the Tarajal pass to enter their country from Ceuta after two years “locked up” in the Spanish city in North Africa, hoping to finally see their parents and children or mourn their deceased relatives.
A few minutes past midnight Spanish time, the first travelers crossed the border on the Moroccan sidea step that shows off new cabins, fingerprint capture systems and cameras in the passport check.
They were all Moroccans, some with dual nationality, who they had been two years without being able to cross it and they could not hide their joy at the idea of seeing their loved ones again.
Those who entered Morocco on foot they had to pass a health check first where they were asked for the vaccination certificate or a PCR, after which they entered the passport control room.
Between one and the other was Adil with his girl Nermi. He works in Ceuta in a hotel. “We left very excited to see the family, my father, my mother, I haven’t seen them for two years because of work. I’m nervous,” he told Efe, because this time, he confessed, “has been very hard.”
“We had a bad time because family members died and we couldn’t go,” he said with Nermi, who he knows well what he wants from his grandmother when I see her in Castillejos: “A hug”.
And Biral, a photographer, who he was “a little nervous” after passing the health control. In Castillejos there are “his parents, his friends, his relatives” and this time in Ceuta, he said, has been “a bit stressful”.
Hamsa remembered how as a child he passed through the Tarajal on the cart pushed by his mother. He is an event organizer in Ceuta and from Morocco he misseds “its smell, its people, its atmosphere, its food, the streets… everything. It’s going out and it’s another world.”
In the passport queue, Dunia couldn’t stop crying looking at her mobile, immersed in a video call. She was talking to her son, whom she hadn’t been able to see in two years. “She’s afraid he won’t recognize her,” her husband said. “I didn’t take him with me because, when they closed, he was in Morocco and I was in Ceuta,” she clarified.
The joy of the Moroccans finally entering their land after two years without being able to set foot on it (except for those who could afford a plane) contrasted with the cars that left Morocco for Ceuta, few and with European license plates, since only European residents or those with a Schengen visa can access.
Vicky, a teacher at the Spanish institute Nuestra Señora del Pilar de Tetuán, was traveling in one. “I have lived through the entire pandemic in Morocco”she said, and now that the border is open, she was taking the opportunity with a friend to pay a visit to Ceuta.
“We go and we return tonight because tomorrow I work, it is to go, visit it a bit and come back, just for the pleasure of seeing it again“.
In front of his car, a motorhome with German plates was transporting Chris, Vanessa and their four children. They have been traveling with her around Europe since January and decided to spend a few weeks in Morocco. This is how the ferries to Tangier were launched and now they are launching the Tarajal.
“By coincidence we are now returning to Europe after three weeks in Morocco. We like the experience of passing today”he said, surprised by so many cameras.
The reopening of the land borders between the Spanish cities of Ceuta and Melilla and Morocco took place after two years and two months closed due to the pandemic and coinciding with the bilateral diplomatic crisis, now over.
But it is a gradual opening, as announced by the Spanish Government, so that at first only residents of the European Union will be able to access Spanish cities. or people who have a visa Schengen.
In a second phase, on May 31 Moroccan cross-border workers will join these categories that they still have a valid contract with a Spanish employer and that the Government Delegation of Ceuta estimates 300 people.
However, before the closure there were in Ceuta more than 2,000 Moroccans legally hired by Spaniards for trades such as domestic workers, gardeners or construction workers, who for now will not be able to access Ceuta if they cannot get their contracts in order.
It remains up in the air what will happen to the hundreds of thousands of people living in the regions of Tetuán, near Ceuta, and Nador, next to Melilla, who previously enjoyed a visa waiver and they could access the Spanish cities during the day.
Thousands of them crossed daily to Ceuta and Melilla toto work earning black money or to perform smuggling, an illicit trade that was already suspended de facto by Morocco before the closure in 2020.
The intention of Morocco and Spain is put an end to that illegal activitywhich left images of long lines of women carrying huge bundles on their backs carrying merchandise to the North African country.
The reopening of the Tarajal pass coincides with the anniversary of the entry of 12,000 migrants in Ceuta through the same border on May 17 and 18, 2021 before the passivity of the Moroccan authorities.
It was the height of the diplomatic crisis between Spain and Morocco, which began with the reception in Spain in April 2021 of the Polisario leader, Brahim Gali, and ended last March with the Spanish change of position in Western Sahara supporting the Moroccan autonomy initiative.