72,000 crossings into Ceuta: Spain had warned Morocco as early as the day before

The warning is among the 40 reports, alerts and communications made public on Wednesday, September 9, by the Spanish government. According to Reuters, Spain’s National Intelligence Centre (CNI) had informed the two main Moroccan intelligence services as early as July 29.

The note sent to the General Directorate for Territorial Surveillance (DGST) and the General Directorate for Studies and Documentation (DGED) reported calls to enter Ceuta the following day, by crossing the fence or bypassing the border by swimming. The alleged organizers wanted to take advantage of the Throne Day celebrations, which could mobilize part of Morocco’s security forces.

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The CNI had identified two groups totaling 180,000 subscribers. “Just to give an idea of the scale,” a Spanish agent stated in a declassified message. Madrid already knew about this mobilization, while Spanish services initially estimated that only a few thousand people might attempt the crossing.

Madrid denies having been warned about the scale

That same day, the CNI had also passed the information on to the Spanish government delegation in Ceuta. The documents therefore show that both the Moroccan services and Spanish officials had been warned of an imminent attempt. They do not, however, establish how Rabat handled this alert.

Pedro Sánchez’s government maintains that no warning made it possible to foresee an arrival on such a scale. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, insists that he had no information announcing an “avalanche” comparable to the one ultimately observed on July 30 and 31.

The declassified documents nevertheless reveal that the situation had been deteriorating since July 25. During the night preceding the crisis, many people were already waiting on the Moroccan coast before taking to the water. A CNI note drafted on July 30 also states that no genuinely proactive Moroccan response had been observed, beyond the deployment of a few riot-control units.

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Pedro Sánchez still refuses to accuse Rabat of organizing the crossings. He nevertheless acknowledged that Moroccan forces had allowed people to cross the border for around ten hours. A Spanish judicial investigation is now seeking to determine whether this mass arrival was part of a coordinated operation and who may have directed it.