Jorge Fernández Díaz visits Smart Borders System put in place at Port of Algeciras to speed up passenger border crossings

The Automated Border Crossing System (ABC), for use by citizens of the European Economic Area of legal age and bearers of an e-passport or e-ID card, not only speeds up border crossing times but also increases security and facilitates interconnection with other systems. The system checks the validity of the electronic identification document, extracts information on image and fingerprints, captures the live image and fingerprint of the passenger in question and compares them with the information taken from the electronic identification document, and checks the police databases to identify flagged passengers.

The ABC System is in operation at the airports of Madrid, Barcelona, Girona, Palma de Mallorca, Alicante, Malaga and Tenerife Sur, and was also recently launched at the land border crossing between La Línea de la Concepción and Gibraltar. The Algeciras Maritime Station is the first sea port infrastructure where this system has been deployed.

The Automated Border Crossing System forms part of the Smart Borders Programme co-financed by the European Commission and aimed at integrating all air, sea and land borders.

Jorge Fernández Díaz also visited the site of the new Regional Strait of Gibraltar Border Crossing Coordination Centre, work on which has entered the final stage. This centre, which has been set up in collaboration with the Port Authority of Algeciras Bay, is where the General Commissariat of Immigration and Border Affairs will create a Strait of Gibraltar Command and Control Centre. The centre is expected to become operational in September.

Algeciras, benchmark port for Operation Strait of Gibraltar Passage

Jorge Fernández Díaz was also able to check the status of and work being done by the team running Operation Strait of Gibraltar Passage, the largest citizen movement European operation that, so far, is experiencing a significant increase in the number of vehicles and passengers boarding when compared with the same dates last year.

To 22 July, a total of 153,312 vehicles and 665,057 passengers have left the ports of Algeciras, Tarifa, Alicante, Motril, Malaga and Almeria. This is an increase of 23.4% and 26.9% on 2014, respectively.

As is usual, Algeciras Bay accounts for the largest percentage of these movements - between 70% and 75% of the total. Specifically, a total of 89,277 vehicles and 352,660 passengers have already passed through Algeciras, while Tarifa has seen 19,446 vehicles and 109,514 passengers. The same upward trend is being repeated at all the other ports involved.

Furthermore, it should be noted that a total of 996 passengers have received healthcare attention and 1,864 have received social services as part of the healthcare and social services plan being implemented at these ports.

Operation Minerva

Finally, Operation Minerva was presented within the framework of the visit by the Minister for Home Affairs to the Port of Algeciras, the main goals of which are to control illegal migratory flows into the European Union and combat cross-border crime.

This operation, being run by the Spanish National Police Force and coordinated by FRONTEX, will be activated at the ports of Algeciras, Ceuta and Tarifa on 30 July to coincide with Operation Strait of Gibraltar Passage. A total of 30 officers from the Spanish National Police Force and another 48 officers from 17 Member States of the European Union will take part in the operation this year.