Spain, Morocco re-open land borders after two years of closure

The North African country of Morocco and  European nation of Spain have re-opened the land borders between the  enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, two years after they were closed down due to COVID -19 restriction and a diplomatic disagreement between the two nations. The enclaves on the Mediterranean coast in northern Morocco have the European Union’s only land borders with Africa. The gates opened shortly after 11:00 pm local time (2200 GMT) 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 travellers 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. Meanwhile 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 economies of the two sides recived a major boost due to large crossing of the people and their 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. Recall that maritime travel between the two countries resumed on April 12, 2022 and process was on going to re-open land borders.