The Spanish Ministry of the Interior announced that the “Smart Borders” system (EES) will come into effect starting Sunday, October 12th. This measure encompasses all external border crossings, including the occupied city of Melilla.
The new system, based on recording travelers’ biometric data such as fingerprints and facial images, will definitively replace manual stamps in passports. Madrid says the aim is to “enhance security” and “speed up border crossing,” but observers believe it also carries political messages related to tightening security control at the border crossings of the occupied cities of Melilla and Ceuta. The adoption of this system raises questions about its impact on the neighboring Moroccan population, for whom daily movement across the border has long been an economic and social lifeline. While Spanish authorities promote the modernity of the measure, many fear it will become a new tool for surveillance and discrimination, further isolating the occupied cities from their natural environment in Morocco.
