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Rabat – The colonel of the Civil Guard in the Spanish enclave of Melilla, Antonio Sierras Sanchez, has announced the upcoming use of drones to monitor the Moroccan border fence and changes to the land posts once it reopens after 18 months of closure due to COVID-19.
Drones will soon be used to secure the Melilla border. The city’s authorities intend to implement this new measure as soon as the borders open again, reports Spanish media outlet El Huffpost.
According to Sanchez, the new surveillance mechanism reduces the amount of risk that Moroccan and Spanish civil guards face in terms of securing the border.
He pointed out that “many Moroccan agents have been injured or lost their lives trying to repel assaults by migrants of rare violence,” while on the Spanish side, more than 60 civil guards have been injured in 2021.
Sanchez expressed gratitude to the “collaboration and loyalty” of Moroccan security forces in the fight against illegal immigration.
Sanchez has announced the installation of a new long-range camera and is hoping that in the near future, the process can begin “for the use of a new element of surveillance as is done through drones,” in order to reduce the risks that civil guards assume in this type of intervention.
The border between Morocco and Melilla has remained closed since March 2020, but it was opened for the purpose of allowing Moroccans who were blocked in Ceuta and Melilla in May this year to return home.
The closure was initially temporary following the outbreak of COVID-19, however, numerous closure extensions soon followed.
