EuroMed Rights and AlgoRace launch their new report Digital technologies for migration control at the Spanish southern border: A journey to the cross-cutting edge of digital automation in Ceuta and Melilla and the Canary Islands.
Over the past two decades, the use of digital technologies at the borders of the European Union has increased. The EU and its member states are investing more resources and funding in developing technologies that track migration flows, collect fingerprints and other biometric data, and monitor maritime borders with drones and conventional, infrared and thermal cameras. The integration of automated technologies has significantly changed migration surveillance and border management in the past years. However, an analysis of Spain’s southern border reveals a more complicated picture. Although the installation of new technologies and surveillance systems is progressing, field research reveals that these advances are costly and slow to implement.
To understand the complexity of the Spanish southern border we must speak of a socio-technical assemblage of power, where technology interacts with legislation, politics and, most importantly, the people on whom it is deployed. At the same time, border and security agents play a key role in the way the technology is used, while maritime rescue teams and civil organizations monitor the impact on the ground, along with those who contribute to the datafication of people on the move.
Overall, field data shows that technology is used mainly to detect and expel people on the move, rather than for rescue and protection. Technology also affects migration patterns, forcing people to take dangerous journeys, making it harder to seek asylum and reproducing racial bias. But what are the technical means being used and planned for the near future on Spain’s southern border? Who uses them and how? To what extent do these tools operate autonomously or as part of a wider socio-technical assemblage?
Read more in our report here.