Border fortification from both sides

Compared with other cases, the fortification of the Morocco-Algeria border is done simultaneously and unilaterally from both sides. The regional rivalry between the two countries and their long-standing political differences preclude any possibility of agreement on a common way to fortify and control their land border.

At the beginning of 2013, the Algerian authorities dug five-meter-wide trenches in many points of its western border with Morocco to deter cross-border activities. In September 2015, Algeria started widening the first trenches to seven meters and deepening them in depth to 11 meters to make irregular cross-border movement more difficult, because the first trench had not stopped informal trading and smuggling across the border. The Algerian border patrol has recently started using helicopters to monitor the common northern border with Morocco.

For its part, Morocco has made its own physical barrier and created an electronic system to enhance control and monitoring of its border. The policy of walls is not new to Morocco’s military and security policy. Moroccan Aimed Forces have erected a sand wall of 2,200 kilometers in the Western Sahara in the 1981-7 period to defend this territory and prevent the attacks of the Sahrawi separatists (Saddiki, 2012b: 199-212). Although Morocco may benefit from its experience in the Western Sahara in the technology used in border management, the two cases are quite different in structure and purpose. In 2014, Morocco started fencing 150 kilometers of its land border with Algeria. The fence is now equipped with electronic sensors to prevent terrorist threats, irregular immigration and other illegal cross-border activities. It is three meters high and consists of two parts: A 50-centimeter concrete base and a 2.5-meter wire fence. A road has been traced along the fence for the Moroccan security force to guard the border. In the beginning of 2016, the Moroccan authorities began to extend the fence to the south on the perimeter of the province of Figuig. This fence was not erected far from the borderline, leaving some farms and fields between the fence and the international border with Algeria. This second part of the Morocco fence is contested by the local population who are denied access to their land.

In comparison to other cases in the world like North America, Europe, India and Israel, the border fortifications led by both Morocco and Algeria are generally low cost and simple in construction. The Moroccan fence is not as sophisticated as the other cases such as the US-Mexico border (Saddiki, 2014: 175-190) or the fences of Ceuta and Melilla (Saddiki. 2012a: 49-65), and the limited height of the fence makes it easy to climb with makeshift ladders. Erecting fences or digging trenches are not enough in themselves and cannot be effective without serious cooperation between the two neighbors. Perhaps the clearest example of the necessity of the regional cooperation is the fences of Ceuta and Melilla, which are higher, well sophisticated, equipped with high-tech sensors and supported by hundreds of police and military forces, but they have frequently been scaled by sub-Saharan African immigrants. On the other side, Morocco has strengthened monitoring of the two enclaves’ borders and built its own fence on the border of Melilla. These unilateral security measures, even if they have undoubtedly reduced the number of candidates for irregular immigration, could not stop it, because of the lack of institutional cooperation mechanisms on the border control between Morocco and Spain. In addition, drug trafficking between the two shores of the

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Mediterranean has increased in recent years despite the two countries' efforts to combat smuggling of various kinds (IOM, 2019).