Morocco’s surveillance infrastructure expands ahead of the Africa Cup and World Cup

By Dima Samaro, Executive Director at Skyline International for Human Rights (SIHR)
 

All eyes are on Morocco as it gears up to host the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations and co-host the 2030 FIFA World Cup, but few are watching what's happening off the pitch. Across its cities, authorities are pouring millions into AI-driven facial recognition and behavior-tracking technologies, threatening to turn public spaces into zones of constant surveillance.

In Fez, a $14 million project is expanding the city's surveillance infrastructure. In Rabat, officials plan to install 4,000 smart cameras by the end of 2025, backed by 108 million Moroccan dirhams ($10.8 million). These systems do more than monitor; they deploy algorithms that scan faces, read license plates, track movements, and flag so-called “suspicious” behavior in real time. Sold under the banner of security and modernization, they risk entrenching state control and undermining basic rights like privacy, free expression, and freedom of assembly.

In response to these developments, Morocco’s National Commission for the Protection of Personal Data (CNDP) announced in March 2025 that it would hold hearings to establish regulations governing the use of video surveillance. The CNDP’s statement highlighted critical issues with technologies like facial recognition in public spaces, raising questions about necessity, proportionality, and the risks to personal data protection. It called for a balanced discussion that upholds constitutional values, serves the public interest, and protects citizens’ rights.

Meanwhile, Morocco’s Digital Strategy 2030, which heavily relies on AI, aims to position the country as a regional tech leader in North Africa. But without strong data protection, oversight, and accountability mechanisms, this “digital leap” risks becoming a Trojan horse, masking intrusive surveillance under the guise of technological progress. A key example of this is the growing deployment of facial recognition and other biometric surveillance tools, which has sparked concerns about the potential for widespread, consent-free monitoring of individuals. Many worry that such technology could track ordinary activities in public spaces, eroding privacy and infringing on fundamental freedoms.

What’s unfolding in Morocco mirrors a troubling global trend: governments using high-profile international events to justify permanent expansions of surveillance power, with little public debate and even less accountability. 

Surveillance outpaces privacy protections in Morocco

Equally troubling is Morocco's weak legal framework, which has failed to keep pace with the country’s expanding surveillance practices. While the Data Protection Law (n° 09-08 of 2009) established the CNDP as an oversight body, the law also includes broad national security exemptions that exclude personal data collected for national defense, internal or external state security, and crime prevention from protection.

As a result, these exemptions limit the CNDP’s ability to oversee surveillance activities effectively, allowing unchecked data collection under the pretext of state security. With little judicial oversight and no meaningful legislative updates, the law is ill-equipped to address the growing threats posed by emerging technologies such as AI and biometric surveillance systems.

Over the past decade, reports have highlighted Morocco’s expanding surveillance capabilities, sparking growing concerns over privacy and digital rights violations. In 2011, the government reportedly allocated €2 million to the Eagle system to monitor and censor internet traffic. Subsequently, allegations emerged that Morocco acquired a mass surveillance technology called Evident from the British firm BAE Systems, which enabled the interception of emails and phone calls on a broad scale.

The Pegasus Project further revealed that Moroccan authorities used NSO Group’s spyware to target at least 35 journalists, activists, and human rights defenders, showing how surveillance extends beyond public safety to political repression. Despite the growing scale of surveillance, Morocco’s legal framework fails to safeguard citizens’ privacy or ensure accountability.

Amid preparations for global tournaments, the country’s recent investments in AI-powered systems highlight the existing gaps in its data protection regime. These technologies will process not only the personal data of Moroccans but also that of foreign visitors, including Europeans who are protected under strict privacy laws like the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This creates a troubling paradox: while the GDPR enforces strict rules on data like facial scans, and location tracking, Morocco lacks clear policies for handling such sensitive information. Without stronger regulation, the country risks legal disputes and reputational fallout as it monitors individuals entitled to far greater privacy protections than its systems currently provide.

Despite recent attempts to regulate AI surfacing on Parliament’s agenda, no substantial progress has been made. For example, in April 2024, Morocco’s Labor Union party took a key step by proposing a bill to address the potential misuse of AI. The draft calls for the creation of a National Agency for Artificial Intelligence to oversee governance and to implement and update a national AI strategy. Yet the government has failed to move the bill forward for parliamentary debate, leaving intrusive AI systems effectively unregulated.

How corporations are driving Morocco’s surveillance agenda

Morocco’s accelerating surveillance rollout has created a gold rush for private companies. The government recently increased its investment to 975 million Moroccan dirhams ($97.5 million), bringing total spending on these projects to nearly 1.2 billion dirhams (around $120 million). Several domestic firms are at the center of this expansion. A consortium including Cires Technologies, Tanger Med, and Tanger Med Utilities (TMU) won a 199 million dirham ($19.9 million) contract to deploy surveillance networks in Rabat and Casablanca.

Meanwhile, Al Omrane Group is installing 233 “smart” cameras in the old medina of Marrakesh, some of which are equipped with facial recognition and AI. Finatech Group is managing the setup of command and data centers under a 35 million dirham ($3.5 million) deal, while Alomra Group International is overseeing the deployment of cameras with facial recognition and license plate reading capabilities in Rabat under a 74 million dirham ($7.4 million) contract.

With such significant sums being poured into these surveillance projects, the role of private companies demands closer scrutiny. Under the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), businesses have a duty to avoid contributing to rights abuses, especially when their technologies enable mass surveillance. They are required to carry out human rights due diligence to identify, assess, and mitigate the risks their technologies may pose to privacy, free expression, and freedom of peaceful assembly.

Yet, there is little evidence that firms involved in deploying surveillance tools are meeting these obligations. Companies may argue they are merely executing state contracts. But Principle 13(b) of the UNGPs makes clear that businesses must “seek to prevent or mitigate adverse human rights impacts that are directly linked to their operations, products or services by their business relationships, even if they have not contributed to those impacts.”

In other words, contractual relationships with the state do not absolve companies of their human rights responsibilities. As Morocco’s surveillance infrastructure expands through these corporate partnerships, the lack of industry accountability only sharpens the risk that private actors become key enablers of digital repression.

The COVID-19 precedent: How health emergency measures paved the way

Morocco’s embrace of surveillance has deep roots, many of which trace back to the COVID-19 pandemic. In early 2020, as the country scrambled to contain the spread of the virus, health emergency measures opened the door to unprecedented tracking of citizens. The government rushed to deploy digital surveillance tools, such as drones equipped with thermal cameras and loudspeakers, to enforce lockdowns.

Authorities also introduced facial recognition technology to detect individuals not wearing masks or adhering to COVID-19 social distancing measures, but its use quickly expanded. In 2021, the Ministry of Interior was reportedly behind a 500 million dirham ($52.3 million) plan to install 577 AI-powered cameras across Casablanca. These systems feature capabilities ranging from behavior analysis and protest monitoring to the tracking of individuals in "sensitive neighborhoods," and they lay the groundwork for a permanent threat to civil liberties.

The deployment of this technology soon sparked alarm among human rights experts globally. In June 2020, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet warned against the use of facial recognition technology to monitor peaceful protests, calling for increased transparency and stronger safeguards for human rights. These concerns are especially relevant to the current situation in Morocco.

In a positive, but ultimately ineffective, step, in September 2019, Morocco’s CNDP had issued a warning about the privacy risks of biometric systems, imposing a seven-month moratorium on facial recognition. However, this moratorium was extended only through the end of 2020, and despite the CNDP's initial concerns, no further action was taken to permanently regulate or ban facial recognition technologies. As a result, surveillance systems continued to proliferate unchecked.

Europe’s role: Feeding the surveillance machinery

What is driving Morocco’s surveillance surge is not only domestic policy but also substantial external backing. European funding, channeled primarily through migration management schemes like the Emergency Trust Fund (EUTF) for Africa, has quietly become a key force behind the country’s growing security apparatus. Since 2019, the European Union has allocated over €120 million to bolster Morocco’s border control, pursuing a strategy rooted in outsourcing migration enforcement beyond Europe’s borders.

Framed by European officials as tools to combat “irregular migration” and cross-border crime, surveillance technologies like thermal cameras and AI-powered video systems, do far more than monitor borders. Vulnerable groups, especially migrants and refugees, are among the most impacted.

Spain, in particular, has deepened this cooperation. In October 2024, the Ministry of Interior awarded Madrid-based Etel 88 S.A a €4.1 million contract for 20 surveillance systems, each costing €206,000, for Morocco's border forces. This adds to a growing arsenal already funded by Spain, including 188 thermal cameras, night vision scopes, and portable trackers. These deals highlight how private firms profit from the weaponization of migration by supplying surveillance technologies that push migrants onto more dangerous routes and put lives at even greater risk.

The European Union has not only funded Morocco’s border infrastructure but also played a key role in expanding its digital surveillance capabilities. In July 2022, reports revealed that the EU supplied Moroccan authorities with spyware to extract data from mobile phones for combating irregular migration and human trafficking. The EU has also funded training for Moroccan security forces in mobile data extraction and social media monitoring. These methods are considered highly invasive in Europe, where they are tightly regulated and require judicial oversight.

The path forward: Rights before surveillance

Morocco must halt its surveillance expansion until proper safeguards are in place. The CNDP should not only reinstate its 2019 moratorium on facial recognition but also extend it to all forms of biometric tracking and AI-driven technologies. Simultaneously, Morocco’s outdated data protection law requires urgent revision to close existing loopholes that allow unchecked collection of biometric data and to align national legislation with international human rights standards.

With an increasing reliance on AI-powered security systems—whether in response to health emergencies or managing major sporting events—Morocco must ensure these technologies are subject to public debate, transparent oversight, and meaningful input from civil society and digital rights experts. These systems must uphold human dignity, autonomy, and privacy, ensuring that human rights are prioritized in their deployment. This should include mandatory human rights impact assessments and clear accountability mechanisms for both government bodies and private companies involved in rolling out surveillance technologies.

As global attention turns to Morocco's mega-events, one question looms: Will Morocco repeat the mistakes of its pandemic-era surveillance or seize the opportunity to become a regional leader in rights-respecting technology? The choice will echo far beyond its borders, shaping the future of AI, governance, and human rights across the MENA region and beyond.
 

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About the Author:

Dima Samaro is the Executive Director at SIHR and a Tech Policy Expert focusing on digital rights in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. With over 10 years of experience in human rights advocacy, she works at the intersection of technology, law, and human rights. Dima has contributed to numerous international reports on digital surveillance practices and their impact on vulnerable communities in the region. She is also a board member of the Innovation for Change MENA Hub and the Surveillance in the Majority World Network.