Paso de Estrecho gets underway today

Paso de Estrecho gets underway today
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By h.b. - Jun 15, 2009 - 6:48 AM
It's the operation to control the thousands of Moroccans who head back home for the summer holidays

Travellers waiting to board a ferry in Algeciras - EFE

The so-called ‘Paso del Estrecho’ is now underway, and this year 2.7 million people of Magreb origin are expected to cross the Algeciras Bay, as they head home for their summer holidays in some 700,000 vehicles, most of them well over-loaded.

Special controls are in place from today, Monday in the ports of Algeciras, Tarifa, Almería, Alicante and Málaga, but it is in Algeciras where most of the travelers head. There around 2,000 people are employed in total, with health workers, Arab and French interpreters, social workers, Red Cross volunteers and Protección Civil and other security services. They will attend to the travelers as they wait to board one of some 20 ferries which will make constant crossings of the Strait. 7,000 parking places have been established.

Peak periods are the weekends of July 25 and 26 and August 1 and 2.

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