Spain on Alert for Potential Migrant Surge from Morocco Ahead of Diplomatic Summit

The Spanish intelligence services consider it "probable or very likely" that a migration crisis will occur in Ceuta or Melilla in November, where the high-level meeting between Spain and Morocco, postponed several times due to the health and diplomatic crisis between the two countries, should be held.

According to information gathered on the ground by the Spanish intelligence services, these assaults can take place in the weeks or days preceding the high-level meeting between Madrid and Rabat. Spain is eagerly awaiting but with a lot of mistrust this meeting, aware that Morocco could play tricks on it.

In a letter addressed to the UN last week, Morocco declared that it has no borders with Spain and described Melilla as an "occupied territory". The kingdom is gradually bringing back its claims on Ceuta and Melilla, which risks creating new tensions with Spain, which fears a migratory pressure in the two autonomous cities.

In recent days, Morocco has dispersed some 5,000 sub-Saharan migrants, mostly Sudanese, who were flocking from Moroccan cities like Casablanca to Mount Gourougou, near Nador, in order to illegally enter Melilla.