The Ministry of the Interior will deploy from tomorrow Thursday a security device for Operation Strait Pass 2023 with a total of 19,441 police officers, an increase of 21.4 percent compared to that deployed in 2022. The objective of this deployment is to guarantee the normal and fluid development of the operation, which takes place between June 15 and September 15, and in which thousands of citizens of Maghreb origin cross Spain to go to and return from their countries of origin during the summer period.
This security device is made up of 18,593 agents (4,520 of National Police and 14,073 of Civil Guard), to which must be added 648 policemen assigned in the ports and borders of Valencia, Alicante, Almería, Malaga, Motril, Algeciras, Tarifa, Ceuta and Melilla. In addition, the security apparatus also includes local police officers from the localities with ports of embarkation.
In 2022, the year in which Operation Strait Pass was resumed after two years suspended by the Covid-19 pandemic, a total of 2,912,283 passengers and 695,487 vehicles crossed the Strait between both continents.
OPE SPECIAL PLAN
Operation Paso del Angolo, coordinated by the General Directorate of Civil Protection and Emergencies of the Ministry of the Interior, includes a broad mechanism involving numerous government agencies such as State Ports and the General Directorate of the Merchant Navy, belonging to the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda;
Directorate General of Public Health of the Ministry of Health; or the Government Delegations and Subdelegations where the ports of embarkation are located.
The OPE Special Plan includes a Fleet Plan, provincial coordination plans in each of the participating ports and road safety plans.
The Plan also sets the dates that are expected to be critical due to the massive influx of vehicles and passengers, both in the Departure Phase, between June 15 to August 15, and in the Return Phase, from July 15 to September 15. In this edition, the days marked as critical in the Departure Phase are June 24, 25, 26 and 27, coinciding with the dates prior to the Feast of the Lamb, in addition to July 29, 30 and 31 and August 1. For their part, in the Return Phase, 29, 30, 31 August and 1 September are expected to be the most complicated days.
During these days of increased traffic, it is planned that a series of special measures can be applied, such as the interchangeability of tickets, which help to speed up the boarding of passengers as much as possible.
In the Fleet Plan scheduled for this year, seven shipping companies will participate with 36 ships for the transport of people and vehicles.
For its part, the General Directorate of Traffic has enabled two rest areas and seven information points duly marked and staffed. The Border Information System has also been activated, which makes it possible to predict in advance the times and pace of arrival of vehicles to the ports. 2,428 panels deployed along the entire OPE route will provide service information to all travellers.
HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
The Special Plan also establishes a health care system, in which the Ministry of Health, the Autonomous Communities of Andalusia and the Valencian Community, as well as the Spanish Red Cross, collaborate, and which will take care of any need derived from the high concentration of people and vehicles in the boarding areas, especially on critical dates with greater intensity of passage.
In addition, the citizens who cross our country have personnel specialized in social assistance that offer administrative support in their language.
STRENGTHENING OF COORDINATION CHANNELS
In recent months, Spain and Morocco have held numerous bilateral discussions and meetings between the technical teams involved in the design of OPE 2023.
These preparations culminated last May 17 in Madrid with the meeting of the Spanish-Moroccan Joint Commission, in which the delegations presided over by the undersecretary of the Ministry of the Interior, Isabel Goicoechea, and the director of Migration and Border Surveillance of Morocco, Khalid Zerouali, reiterated the commitment of both countries to strengthen coordination and exchange of information.