Spain sets radar on refugees

Spain is setting up a pioneering network of radar and sensitive night-sight cameras along its southern coast in a hi-tech attempt to crack down on the trafficking of drugs and immigrants from Morocco.

The scheme, said to be the first of its kind in Europe and costing €142m (£90m), will enable Civil Guard paramilitary coastal patrols to spot vessels up to 12 miles from the Spanish coast, the government said. The aim is to detect the small wooden pateras and rubber dinghies that smuggle thousands of would-be immigrants from Morocco to Spain each year. With the Integrated External Vigilance System (SIVE), infra-red cameras and radar capable of detecting the presence of a person or an outboard motor will alert officials stationed along the coast.

"The government is committed to fighting the trafficking of human beings with the rule of law and new, useful and resolute methods such as the SIVE," Angel Acebes, the Interior Minister, said while inaugurating the system on Wednesday in Algeciras.

The most popular route is across the hazardous Strait of Gibraltar, which is only nine miles wide at Tarifa. Many of those packed into fragile little vessels are repatriated, while thousands manage to slip through. Thousands are believed to die in the attempt.

The system is also intended to combat hashish traffickers who ship their produce to Europe across the strait.