Spain in Hi-tech War on Immigrants
The Spanish police have installed a £90m system of radars and night vision cameras to help it stop illegal immigrants being smuggled across the Strait of Gibraltar from Africa. The interior minister, Angel Acebes, said yesterday that the system would enable the frontier police to...
The Spanish police have installed a £90m system of radars and night vision cameras to help it stop illegal immigrants being smuggled across the Strait of Gibraltar from Africa.
The interior minister, Angel Acebes, said yesterday that the system would enable the frontier police to watch any vessel, however small, crossing the nine-mile Strait at any time of the day or night.
The route is one of the most popular - and dangerous - ways into Europe for African illegal immigrants.
Increasingly, the smugglers use inflatable launches, which are low-lying and difficult to detect with normal radar, to carry migrants to beaches around Tarifa and Algeciras.
The route is also popular with drug-runners. Nearly 60% of Europe's cannabis comes into Spain from Morocco.
Now three large towers containing new radar systems, infra-red cameras and powerful video cameras have been erected, near Algeciras, Tarifa and Zahara de los Atunes.
The Israeli-made radar was originally developed to prevent Palestinian commando units landing on beaches from high-speed launches.
A dozen more towers are being built along the southern coast and in the Canary Islands to cover all the beaches facing Morocco.
The control centre in Algeciras is dominated by a huge screen which shows every vessel in the strait. Other screens let those monitoring the traffic zoom in on individual vessels.
Immigrant pressure groups in Spain say that 4,000 people have drowned on the crossing in the past five years. The civil guard says it has saved 730 from drowning since 2000.
"That gives you an idea of the humanitarian importance of controlling the maritime frontier," Mr Acebes said. Spain has expelled more than 12,155 immigrants, most of them Moroccans, this year.
Mr Acebes said the EU as a whole should get more involved in tackling illegal immigration, and not leave the task to those states which have external borders that are difficult to control.
"The question of borders is more than just a national issue now that we have got rid of internal borders"
The interior minister, Angel Acebes, said yesterday that the system would enable the frontier police to watch any vessel, however small, crossing the nine-mile Strait at any time of the day or night.
The route is one of the most popular - and dangerous - ways into Europe for African illegal immigrants.
Increasingly, the smugglers use inflatable launches, which are low-lying and difficult to detect with normal radar, to carry migrants to beaches around Tarifa and Algeciras.
The route is also popular with drug-runners. Nearly 60% of Europe's cannabis comes into Spain from Morocco.
Now three large towers containing new radar systems, infra-red cameras and powerful video cameras have been erected, near Algeciras, Tarifa and Zahara de los Atunes.
The Israeli-made radar was originally developed to prevent Palestinian commando units landing on beaches from high-speed launches.
A dozen more towers are being built along the southern coast and in the Canary Islands to cover all the beaches facing Morocco.
The control centre in Algeciras is dominated by a huge screen which shows every vessel in the strait. Other screens let those monitoring the traffic zoom in on individual vessels.
Immigrant pressure groups in Spain say that 4,000 people have drowned on the crossing in the past five years. The civil guard says it has saved 730 from drowning since 2000.
"That gives you an idea of the humanitarian importance of controlling the maritime frontier," Mr Acebes said. Spain has expelled more than 12,155 immigrants, most of them Moroccans, this year.
Mr Acebes said the EU as a whole should get more involved in tackling illegal immigration, and not leave the task to those states which have external borders that are difficult to control.
"The question of borders is more than just a national issue now that we have got rid of internal borders"
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