After a two year pause owing to Covid and strained relations with Morocco, the ferry operation carrying Moroccans returning home for summer has recommenced.

Operación Paso del Estrecho 2022 (OPE) involves Motril port and the Moroccan ports of Nador and Alhucemas, as well as the North African, Spanish enclave city of Melilla.

Morrocans, as well as other North African nationals flood down through Europe and across Spain, heading for Motril because it is the shortest sea-route, therefore the cheapest. For this reason, it is a lucrative business for the ferry lines (Armas-Trasmediterránea) covering the routes.

The ferry, volcán de Timanfaya, left Motril port this afternoon at 14.00h, loaded with three large lorries, six cars and eleven passengers – far short of its carrying capacity, but then again it is the first day.

Come July and August, it will be very busy. In fact, the last time that there was an OPE was in 2019 when ferries out of Motril carried a total of 156,000 passengers.

Tonight it will return from Nador Port and then on Friday it will leave enroute for Alhucemas at 08.00h. On Saturday it will sail two hours later and then on Sunday, it won’t weigh anchor until the afternoon at 16.45h.

The Ferry company,Armas-Trasmediterránea foresees 146 trips between Motril and Nador/Alhucemas. Meanwhile, the ferry company Balearia is using two of its ferries (Nápoles & Bahama Mamma) with a capacity to transport 2,600 passesngers and 800 vehicles between them.

Motril port has an area of 40,000 sq/m for parking, 6,000 sq/m of which have shade.

(News: Motril, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)