Having become a flagship of the Moroccan economy, the port of Tanger-Med, one of the largest in Africa, continues its development under close surveillance: 500 cameras and 700 electronic sensors watch over the security of this strategic installation in the Strait of Gibraltar.

About forty km from the city of Tangier, this mega-platform, inaugurated in 2007 for an initial investment of 3.5 billion euros, is now a real small town.

Some two million passengers and 700,000 cars - not to mention trucks - pass through it each year, its general manager, Najlaa Diouri, told AFP during a visit for a group of European journalists.

In the commercial zone, three million containers are processed annually. A zone is also dedicated to the car manufacturer Renault, which has a factory in the Tangier hinterland.

With its strategic location at the entrance to one of the three busiest shipping lanes in the world (more than 100,000 ships per year, 20% of global traffic), Tanger-Med is nevertheless faced with security challenges that have led its managers to provide an imposing system.

Shortly after its inauguration, a 20 million euro contract was signed with Cassidian, the defence division of the European group EADS, and to date, "more than 2,000 electronic devices" have been deployed, declares Emmanuel Flory, director of border surveillance and critical infrastructure programmes. Regarding the "main threats", it is the terrorist risk "which cannot be ruled out for such a strategic structure" and drug trafficking, "with the proximity of a producing region" (the Rif), he continues.

But the first of these remains illegal immigration, with the nearby Spanish coasts (15 km), notes Mr. Flory.

In Tangier, the majority of candidates for exile are young Moroccans in search of work, according to security officer Mohamed Amine El Fatmi, who reports 700 intrusion attempts per month on average on the site, particularly people trying to hide in trucks.