Morocco will reopen its maritime links for passengers with Spain on Tuesday (April 12th), following the normalization of relations between the two countries, the Ministry of Transport said on Monday evening.
"The shipping companies will gradually resume their passenger services between the Moroccan ports of Tanger Med and Tanger-Ville and the Spanish ports of Algeciras and Tarifa," the ministry said in a statement.
Located on the northern coast of Morocco, on the Strait of Gibraltar, just 14 km from the Spanish coast, Tangier is one of the largest ports in the Mediterranean, along with Marseille and Algeciras.
40 km east of the city, the Tanger Med industrial-port complex was built, operational since 2007 and whose terminals handled more than seven million containers in 2021.
If the resumption of regular passenger and coach traffic is scheduled for Tuesday, motorists will have to wait until April 18.
Diplomatic scramble
Diplomatically scrambled with Spain, Morocco had until now maintained the ban on maritime passenger traffic with Spain - a mode of transport popular with Moroccans residing in Europe - after the reopening of its maritime borders closed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
But Madrid ended nearly a year of crisis on March 18 after reversing the Western Sahara issue and acknowledging Morocco's autonomy plan for the disputed territory.
With AFP
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