Abstract Electrokinetics is a development technology used for the removal and extraction of contaminants, such as: heavy metals, radionuclides and organic contaminants from fine-grained and low-permeability soils. The goal of electrokinetic remediation is to perform the migration of contaminants under the application of an electric field imposed on two electrodes inserted into a mass of soil. Three phenomena can occur when the soil is electrically charged, which are electro-osmosis, electromigration and electrophoresis. In this paper, an experimental investigation was conducted to study the effect of electrokinetic treatment on the mobility, extraction and transfer of ionic species in a saline soil collected from Ain Nouissy town near Mostaganem city in Algeria. The soil under consideration is a silty clay with a moderate plasticity. A series of electrokinetic tests was carried out on an experimental cell developed at the LCTPE laboratory (University of Mostaganem-Algeria), where electric current, effluent flow, pH and water content were measured along the sample at different applied voltages. The results obtained during the tests have shown that the electro-osmotic flow increases and the electric current decreases during the treatment, while a significant reduction in the water content is clearly noticed, i.e. dry zone at the anode and wet one at the cathode. With regard to the electromigration, removal of solutes from the soil, sodium was better recovered than calcium. The results have shown that the electrokinetic process is a quick and easy solution for treating saline soils. This technique is a cost-effective method for achieving sanitation objectives of sites contaminated by chemical species and protect agricultural infrastructure and soils from deleterious effects of salinity.