Spain: Electronic control of Strait
01 May 1999
The Spanish government is developing a so-called "Integrated System for External Vigilance" with a budget of Ptas 25 billion, aimed at preventing the arrival of immigrants along Spain's southern coast. It will be based on high-technology equipment including long-distance radar, thermal imaging cameras and night visors, infrared lighting, helicopters and patrol boats. A co-ordinating centre is to be set up in Algeciras. The plan is to be implemented over a 3-5 year period, with Ptas 2 billion already committed this year to open the pilot centre. The lead agency involved in the project is the Guardia Civil, as envisaged in its strategic plan for the southern region.
The government acknowledged last year that the huge wall built around the Ceuta enclave, at a cost of over Ptas 5.5 billion, was ineffective. Its response has been to reinforce the wall with another, this time over three metres high. Detentions of immigrants without residence papers have tripled under the Popular Party (conservative) government. According to figures presented by the Interior Ministry to the Senate in April, 1998 saw 40,710 such arrests, as compared with 15,416 in 1995. However expulsions have only increased by 13 per cent.
The municipal police in Ceuta has been routinely arresting Moroccan children and expelling them across the border. This is illegal and contravenes both the Law on Foreigners and that on the Legal Protection of Minors, under which the state authorities have a duty of care towards children. On 11 November 1998 a ministerial order prohibited the expulsion of abandoned minors. The illegal practice continued, drawing condemnation from numerous organisations, and causing the Spanish attorney general to issue on 16 March a formal directive to the local police at Ceuta forbidding further expulsions of minors. Three police officers who publicised their concerns about the practice have been suspended without pay for several months and are the subject of five legal investigations.