The system has recently been installed on a corner of the lighthouse rooftop, although it remains unclear whether it is already operational.
Formentera’s new Integrated External Surveillance System (SIVE) has now been installed on the rooftop of La Mola Lighthouse, although there is still no official confirmation that the system has become operational.
Spain’s Ministry of the Interior, which has ultimate responsibility for the system, has declined to provide details about the installation, its technical specifications or its current operational status, citing the fact that the information relates to security infrastructure.
The equipment is relatively small and largely unobtrusive. Its installation brings to an end a project that has been under consideration for almost five years.
A project first proposed in 2021
The first public calls for a permanent SIVE radar on Formentera date back to October 2021, when then-member of Spain’s Congress Miquel Jerez called for the installation of a fixed system on the island in response to the growing number of migrant boats arriving from Algeria.
On 1 December 2021, Spain’s conservative Popular Party (PP) formally registered a non-legislative proposal calling for the measure. Just over three months later, on 7 March 2022, the Congress Interior Committee approved a motion urging the government to speed up the installation.
The project subsequently went through a lengthy administrative process.
In February 2024, it emerged that the Ministry of the Interior was looking for a suitable location for the system. Four months later, in June, the government told the Spanish Senate that it was carrying out “the necessary procedures”.
In November, the Balearic Islands Port Authority approved the initial text of an agreement with the Interior Ministry to locate the SIVE system at La Mola Lighthouse.
The Ministry of the Interior finally awarded the contract for the new station on 12 September 2025 to Atos IT Solutions and Services Iberia for €1.83 million before tax, or around €2.2 million including VAT.
How the SIVE system works
The SIVE system combines long-range radar technology capable of detecting vessels from a considerable distance with optronic sensors, including visible-light and infrared cameras.
Together, these systems allow vessels to be identified and tracked before the information is transmitted to Guardia Civil command centres. From there, the necessary resources can be deployed to help ensure the rescue of people travelling aboard migrant boats arriving from Algeria under the safest possible conditions.
The installation at La Mola is therefore intended to strengthen surveillance of the maritime approaches to Formentera and the wider Balearic Islands.
Increased pressure on the migration route to Formentera
The new SIVE installation comes at a time of particularly high pressure on the migration route to Formentera.
On 8 September, Neus Massanet, the senator representing Ibiza and Formentera, put the number of migrants who had arrived on the island so far in 2026 at more than 2,450.
A further 94 people were intercepted between 7 and 8 September at different locations on Formentera and in its surrounding waters.
Across the Balearic Islands as a whole, the latest available figures put the total at 5,211 people arriving aboard 300 migrant boats.
The installation of the SIVE system at La Mola Lighthouse marks the completion of a project first publicly advocated in 2021, although it remains unclear whether the new surveillance station is already fully operational.
