Declassified files reveal warning before Ceuta migrant crossings

Spain’s National Intelligence Center warned Spanish and Moroccan authorities about planned migrant crossings into Ceuta on 29 July, according to 40 declassified documents released amid political scrutiny of the government’s handling of the crisis.

A CNI alert to Spain’s government delegation in Ceuta cited social-media calls for an assault on the border fence and crossings by sea the following evening. The message referred to two groups with a combined 180,000 followers. The agency also alerted Morocco’s intelligence services to plans involving crossings by swimming and by climbing the fence.

More than 72,000 migrants and asylum seekers entered the Spanish enclave from Morocco on 30 and 31 July, according to the source material. The crossings involved people swimming around the border and climbing the fence.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez rejected the claim that the warnings showed authorities could have foreseen a crisis on that scale. He said the campaign was known and monitored, but did not indicate the eventual scale, nature or likelihood of the events.

A CNI assessment issued on 30 July said Moroccan authorities were probably not actively encouraging the crossings, but had responded negligently and passively. It said the deployment of a limited number of riot-control units had not produced a proactive response, while several hundred people had already swum towards Ceuta.

About 5,000 people, including 1,200 minors, were still in Ceuta according to the Spanish government, while local officials cited a figure of up to 10,000. Madrid has pledged $357 million in aid. Opposition parties have accused the government of failing to act on the warnings, a political claim the documents have intensified but do not by themselves establish.