High-Tech Deterrent
October 29, 2007
In 2003, Time magazine's cover story on heroes featured an arresting image of a gray-haired white man, clad in a clergyman's robes and a gleaming cross around his neck, standing knee-deep in the sea clasping a black baby in his arms.
The man was Isidoro Macias, a White Cross Franciscan friar who ran shelters for the hundreds of illegal immigrants at the time who made the perilous journey across the Strait of Gibraltar to Spain in small boats known as pateras in Spanish.
Squashed together in the small dinghies, the shivering, dazed Africans who arrived on Spanish shores included many pregnant women and mothers with babies.
It was this group that Isidoro paid special attention to, proving them with food, clothing and shelter -- a mission that earned him the nickname "Papa Patera."
Up to 20 pregnant women lived in Isidoro's shelter at any given time, sleeping on air mattresses.
Infrared cameras to deter migrants
Today, the shelter houses only three women with four children.
"All of a sudden, their numbers have dropped drastically," Isidoro said. "The Spanish security authorities have developed technologies that have led to refugees and criminal people-smugglers taking other routes."
In 2002, the Spanish government developed a high-tech 300-million-euro ($430-million) border surveillance system called SIVE and has since deployed it on its porous southern border.
The control room of the sophisticated tracking system responsible for monitoring a 114-kilometer (71-mile) long stretch of the Strait of Gibraltar -- one of the world's most-traveled sea routes -- is located in a drab block of buildings in the Spanish port of Algeciras.
The nerve center, a room bathed in neon light and outfitted with dozens of computer monitors, allows officials to track the movements of boats and fishing vessels with the help of video cameras and infrared systems installed at five points in the Strait.
"The significant thing about the system is that, both day and night, it can track and make visible swimming objects that barely stick out of the water's surface and are less than a meter (a yard) long," said Salvador Gomez, one of the officials working there.
System working well, say officials
The main concern for the Spanish coast guard is the sea traffic from the south to the north. The route is largely used by young migrants from Morocco, aware that they can't be deported so easily, if they are caught, because they are minors.
"Just this morning we caught two young Moroccans in the Strait," said Gomez. "They were trying to cross it in a child's dinghy that you can buy in any supermarket."
Officials say the sophisticated surveillance system is not just meant to deter illegal immigrants but also to save lives.
Once the system detects illegal immigrants, the chase is taken on by the Spanish coast guard, and emergency services are notified if the rickety boats overturn.
The surveillance system is also meant to help in the fight against the drugs trade. Morocco is the world's largest exporter of hashish, and cocaine, too, is often smuggled via North Africa to Europe.
The tracking system has hugely helped, according to officials.
This year, officials seized less than 1,000 illegal migrants trying to get into Spain, down from some 13,000 in 2000.
A number of other countries, including Portugal, Estonia and Serbia, are following Spain's example and setting up the surveillance system as increasing numbers of illegal immigrants try to make their way into Europe to find work.
"A policy that kills"
The system, however, has been massively criticized by human rights groups, who say it does nothing to stem the flood of illegal migration but only diverts it.
"The immigrants are increasingly selecting further, dangerous routes -- for example via the Canary Islands," said Brigitte Espuche of the Pro Human Rights group in Cadiz. "To me that's not a policy that saves lives, but rather one that kills," she said.
Not everyone agrees. Manuel Fenix of the Red Cross in Tarifa near Algeciras, who has been called countless times by the Spanish Civil Guard to take care of newly-arrived illegal immigrants, said the surveillance system has proved to be a life-saver.
"Boats that run into rough weather on the seas can be tracked by the system and the emergency services can be sent out on time," said Fenix. "Earlier, the people used to just drown."
The system, however, won't prevent people from trying to get to Spain, Fenix added.
He remembered the one time authorities pulled out a dead Moroccan man from the waters in the Strait. He had bound an old rubber tire to his chest and another to his back. Two table tennis rackets, which he had used as paddles, bobbed from rope tied to his hands.
"Africa is just a stone's throw away from us," Fenix said. "As long as people believe they can find a better life here, they'll keep coming. It doesn't matter how many more cameras you install."