Spanish Intelligence Warned Spain and Morocco Over Ceuta Plan 1 Day Before Migrant Surge

Spanish intelligence issued multiple warnings to the government and to its Moroccan counterparts over migrants’ plans to storm Ceuta one day before more than 70,000 people—mostly young men—illegally crossed into the enclave, according to a trove of documents declassified and released by Spain’s government on Wednesday.

In a July 29 note to Moroccan intelligence agencies, Spain’s spy agency, the National Intelligence Centre (CNI), warned of a social media plan for migrants to either swim around or scale the border fence to the autonomous Spanish territory, taking advantage of the annual Throne Day celebration in the north African country.

On the same day, the ​CNI warned Madrid’s representative in Ceuta of the plans, according to declassified WhatsApp messages.

“There are two different groups with a ​total of 180,000 followers. Just to give you an idea of the scale,” the CNI wrote in reference to the social media groups.

Multiple Agencies Involved

The release of 40 documents, which includes intelligence reports, charts, and communications from multiple law enforcement and intelligence agencies, appears to contradict what Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has said about the level of prior warning his government received before the crisis unfolded.

According to NGOs, an estimated ​140 people died during the unprecedented surge, while more than 10,000 migrants, including unaccompanied minors, remain in Ceuta some six weeks later.

The population of the tiny enclave, which forms one of the European Union’s only two land borders with Africa, was only 84,000 prior to the influx.

The remaining migrants are mostly living in makeshift camps on the beach or the streets, according to ​local authorities, fueling almost daily protests by residents angry at the way the Spanish government has handled the situation.

Morocco Blames Spain’s Amnesty

Moroccan Justice Minister Abdellatif Ouahbi said it was very difficult for authorities to prevent people from leaving his country if they believed they could simply walk or swim over the border and be allowed to stay.

The release of the documents is likely to intensify scrutiny of the operational decisions taken in the hours before the crossing and debate over whether sufficient measures were put in place to prevent it.

Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said the documents showed ​there had been no warning of the scale of the migrant surge, which took place mainly on July 30 and continued into the following day.

“Within my remit and based ​on what I experienced that day, I was not aware of any information of any kind pointing to the magnitude of the avalanche,” Albares told reporters on Wednesday.

Sánchez ⁠said last week that Spain had found no evidence to conclude that the border rush in July from Morocco into Ceuta was orchestrated by Moroccan authorities, contradicting allegations by Spanish police in a report.

In contrast, the Spanish Interior Ministry reported apparent passivity on the day of the breach, when Moroccan authorities had been due to reinforce the border with 1,000 additional police officers and soldiers despite it being a public holiday in the north African country, according to a July 30 report released in the trove of documents.

Spain Criticizes Moroccan Response

“At the operational level, no proactive response from Moroccan authorities was ​observed regarding the loss of control ​over the situation, beyond the deployment ⁠of a few riot control units,” the Spanish intelligence agency said in a July 30 note.

It added in the same note that there already were many people on the night of July 29 “waiting to jump into the water to reach ​Ceuta.”

“The increased presence of Moroccan police and gendarmes proved insufficient to control the crowd, and, that night, several hundred ​migrants swam across,” ⁠it said.

The intelligence reports, alerts and communications related to the Ceuta migration crisis from July 1-3, were published on Sept. 9. following Sánchez’s pledge to make them public.

The various reports reveal the situation had been brewing in the week leading up to the mass breach.

“Since July 25, a migration crisis is developing in Ceuta with the arrival ⁠of around 1,700 ​migrants by sea from Morocco to the autonomous city … the available information indicates that more ​intrusions are to be expected in the very short-term,” Spain’s defense ministry warned in an internal presentation published on July 30.

The briefing went on to describe the situation on the Moroccan coast near Ceuta as “migratory chaos.”

Sánchez commented on the release of the documents on X, writing on Sept. 10 that the intelligence services had not issued a major alert to the armed forces, Spain’s national police force or the ministry of defense because he said, “no one could anticipate the migration crisis that occurred on the 30th and 31st. No competent body did so. Neither in Spain nor in the EU.”

Spain’s socialist government has largely praised Moroccan authorities for their cooperation in swiftly repatriating the majority of the illegal immigrants, and blamed the crisis on people-smuggling mafias.

Reuters contributed to this report.