The Spanish National Police and the European border and coast guard agency, Frontex, have launched Operation Minerva for this summer season. The operation takes place every year to support the border guards in the ports of Algeciras, Tarifa and Ceuta with the migratory flow from Morocco.
With a total of 125 personnel deployed in three different operations in Spain, Frontex will assist the country in checking the people crossing the borders. First-line officers checking vehicles, people and passports, together with experts in stolen vehicles and in identification of fraudulent passports, as well as dog handler teams, all from different EU countries, are among the staff deployed to this operation.
The Spanish borders are crossed around 2,000 times per day, some of which constitute illegal crossings, too. The first three months of 2022 counted a total of 1,780 cases – a decrease by 38% compared to the same time period in 2021.
Read the announcement at Frontex
