Operation Crossing the Strait 2024 closes with record figures for traffic of vehicles

This year's Operation Crossing the Strait, which channels the traffic that crosses Spain from different parts of the EU to and from the countries of North Africa, ended last Sunday with a historic total transit figure: 847,429 vehicles, 9.3% more than in 2023, the highest figure recorded in the 30 years of this operation.

This year, 2024, the operation ran from 13 June to 15 September, with detailed planning put in place for the days and weeks when the heaviest traffic was expected to prevent any incident that would interfere with the operation's smooth flow.

In the three months, a total of 3,442,770 passengers (6.9% more than last year) crossed the Strait of Gibraltar smoothly and safely in the largest movement of people between the two continents. In addition, Operation Crossing the Strait 2024, coordinated by the Directorate General of Civil Protection and Emergencies of the Ministry of Home Affairs, recorded a total of 12,012 ship rotations (8.4% more than in 2023).

Operation Crossing the Strait of Gibraltar has occurred since 1986 and manages the outward and return transit of North Africans travelling from several European countries to North Africa during the summer season. The aim is to ensure the smooth and safe transit of Maghrebi citizens through the peninsula. It is the most complex and unique operation taking place between two continents, and again this year it went smoothly and without incident.

Operation Crossing the Strait 2024 was made possible thanks to the extensive arrangements and full capacity operation coordinated by the Directorate General of Civil Protection and the Directorate General of Traffic.

Numerous government agencies also took part, including Puertos del Estado and the Directorate General of the Merchant Navy, both under the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, the Ministry of Health's Directorate General of Public Health, and the government delegations and sub-delegations where the ports of embarkation are located.

Non official translation