Declassified government documents released on Wednesday indicate that Spain’s national intelligence agency issued multiple warnings prior to the late July migrant crisis at the Ceuta border, where individuals crossed from Morocco into the Spanish exclave. The collection of 40 documents, which features alerts, charts, and communications from various law enforcement and intelligence branches, appears to challenge Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s previous statements regarding the extent of advance warning the administration received. The migrant arrivals have sparked widespread protests across Spain, with critics targeting the Sánchez government’s crisis management and political adversaries accusing the prime minister of appeasing Morocco. On July 29, the day before over 72,000 individuals began entering the Spanish city near Morocco, the National Intelligence Center (CNI) transmitted a WhatsApp alert to the government’s delegation in Ceuta, highlighting social media calls regarding an impending assault on the border fence and by sea. The intelligence message noted that two distinct groups held a combined 180,000 followers. Additional documents show that a report sent that same day by Spain’s spy agency to Moroccan intelligence cautioned about social media plans for migrants to breach Ceuta on July 30 by scaling the border fence or swimming around it, while potentially capitalizing on Morocco’s national Throne Day celebrations. Similar warnings regarding Facebook and WhatsApp groups promoting these attempts were dispatched by the national intelligence agency to the Civil Guard police force on July 29. As thousands of people flooded across the border on July 30, a Defense Ministry intelligence report indicated that Moroccan forces displayed passivity and negligence in halting the migrants. The report also suggested that Morocco might seek to leverage the unfolding situation in Ceuta to advance its strategic goals. Morocco’s foreign ministry did not immediately reply to an Associated Press request for comment regarding the documents. On Wednesday, Sánchez dismissed the notion that the declassified files demonstrated prior knowledge of a border crisis reaching the magnitude that occurred between July 30 and 31. Writing on X, Sánchez stated that while the online campaign was recognized and monitored, it did not serve as an indicator of the scale, nature, or probability of the subsequent events. Sánchez has defended his administration’s response, asserting last week that no evidence linked the Moroccan government to orchestrating the incident, a stance that drew further criticism following a leaked police report alleging Moroccan police involvement. Weeks after the initial surge, Ceuta continues to face a prolonged humanitarian crisis as approximately 5,000 migrants remain in the municipality, according to national government data, while local officials estimate the number is as high as 10,000. These individuals include unaccompanied minors, with local authorities reporting that migrants are residing in makeshift camps or across Ceuta’s streets and beaches. Last week, the Spanish leader committed to releasing records concerning Spain’s deadliest mass crossing, during which non-governmental organizations reported over 140 migrant fatalities. In the days leading up to the mass crossing, hundreds of migrants had swum from Morocco to Ceuta, an event acknowledged at the time by Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska. Grande-Marlaska stated that authorities confronted an extraordinary and exceptional scenario that the government was addressing using resources permanently stationed in the area. The documents released on Wednesday encompass multi-agency reports detailing the escalating arrivals that overwhelmed authorities starting on July 30.
Source: cbsnews.com
