CEUTA — On Saturday the Policía Nacional began a painstaking operation on Trampolín beach to create biometric files for an estimated 400 unaccompanied migrant minors still living in informal camps. Mobile enrolment teams equipped with fingerprint scanners and handheld facial-recognition cameras are issuing provisional ID cards valid for three months while age assessments and family-tracing checks are completed. Spanish law obliges authorities to document minors within 72 hours of detection, but July’s mass arrival overwhelmed capacity. The ad-hoc drive therefore seeks to bring the backlog under control before October storms render beach camps unsafe. Once registered, children will be transferred to reception centres on the mainland under agreements with Andalusia, Madrid and Valencia. Child-protection NGOs have welcomed the initiative but warn that relocations must be accompanied by specialised psychosocial support and schooling to comply with EU reception standards. They also urge Madrid to accelerate family-reunification procedures with Morocco where feasible. For mobility managers, the operation is notable because it relies on the same biometric kits the Interior Ministry plans to deploy in secondary Schengen checks at major airports from 2027. Companies should expect wider use of mobile enrolment at Spain’s borders, leading to longer processing times for travellers lacking digital travel credentials. The Ceuta pilot will feed into Spain’s contribution to the EU VIS 2.0 upgrade, reinforcing the country’s ambition to become a testing ground for next-generation identity technologies within the Schengen area.
Source: RTVE
