Spain’s annual summer exodus towards North Africa has passed its first-month checkpoint with encouraging numbers and an important technological milestone. According to the Ministry of the Interior, 646,121 passengers and 160,698 vehicles embarked between 15 June and 15 July as part of Operación Paso del Estrecho (OPE) 2026, the vast ferry operation that channels holiday-makers and migrant workers through Spanish ports to Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. What makes this year different is the compulsory roll-out of the EU’s new Entry/Exit System (EES). For the first time passport pages were not stamped; instead, travellers’ biometric data were captured and stored digitally. Fears of bottlenecks proved unfounded: extra police booths, mobile enrolment units and “green lanes” for families kept average wait times below 20 minutes even on the busiest Algeciras–Tánger Med rotation. Officials attribute the smooth start to months of drills with ferry operators, a live dashboard that shares queue data with Moroccan authorities and a publicity campaign urging travellers to buy dated tickets before reaching the port. Virginia Barcones, secretary-general for Civil Protection, said the experience “confirms that Spain can handle very high passenger flows while complying with the EU’s new smart-border rules.” For mobility managers the message is clear: biometric border controls are no longer just an airport issue. Corporations that post staff to North Africa—or rely on seasonal workers coming the other way—should update travel briefings to reflect the EES process, ensure passports have at least two blank pages for potential contingency stamping, and budget extra time for enrolling first-time ferry users. With return traffic expected to peak in late August, contingency rosters for drivers and group travellers remain advisable.
