Ceuta’s El Tarajal border crossing is set to begin separating EU citizens from non-EU nationals starting Monday, in a bid to speed up crossings ahead of the busiest transit season of the year.
The announcement was made Friday, 5 June, by the Government Delegate in Ceuta, Miguel Ángel Pérez Triano, following a morning visit to El Tarajal and a week of meetings with senior officials in Madrid, including the directors general of the Guardia Civil and the National Police.
“We are looking to gain fluidity without compromising security,” Triano said.
He compared the new setup to airport procedures, where EU passengers move through faster lanes while non-EU travelers go through longer document and border checks. Auxiliary staff will be deployed at both pedestrian entry and exit points to direct the two flows.
Triano also announced that a new exit verification system will soon be added to speed up controls for both pedestrians and vehicles. Two fences at the pedestrian entrance have already been removed to expand queuing space, and benches and rest areas are being installed, a response to weeks of controversy over long wait times.
Since mid-April, El Tarajal has been operating with the EU’s new Entry/Exit System (EES), which registers fingerprints and facial scans for third-country nationals, replacing the manual passport stamp. EU citizens are exempt from EES checks, making the lane separation a practical necessity.
The Operación Paso del Estrecho (OPE) runs from June 15 to September 15 and brings more than 300,000 people through Ceuta’s border, as thousands of Maghrebi residents living in Europe return home for their annual holidays.
OPE 2026 is projected to grow around 3% on last year, which recorded over 3.5 million passengers and 800,000 vehicles across all crossing points. Ceuta handles roughly 15% of that total.
In late May, wait times at El Tarajal reached up to eight hours before the Government Delegation opened additional lanes in coordination with Moroccan Gendarmerie, bringing waits down to under an hour.
Gonzalo Sanz, OPE coordinator, in a statement to EFE said: “the implementation of the Entry-Exit system will be one of the great challenges of the operation,” adding that “there will be a specific unit to reinforce document checks in the face of the challenge of implementing Entry-Exit for the first time during an OPE.”
Police sources told Ceuta Ahora that: “the system is a useful tool, but its deployment requires more human and technical resources to avoid bottlenecks,” and warned that “the combination of biometric checks and peak-hour passenger volumes can slow crossings at certain times of the day.”
add your comment
Terms of publication : Not to offend the writer, people, sacred things, or attack religions or the divine self, and refrain from racist incitement and insults.