Spanish Police Search for 800 Migrants in Ceuta, Find Goats
An alert announcing the arrival of hundreds of Moroccan migrants mobilized Spanish police in Ceuta. At the scene, officers found only goats. This false invasion is one of around a hundred pieces of disinformation recorded in two months by a European observatory.
Police expected to find hundreds of migrants in the mountains of Benzú, in Ceuta. But when they searched the area, they saw only a few goats. “They were saying that 800 migrants had entered, but there were only goats,” a Spanish officer told the daily El País. The incident dates back to September 23, when messages announcing another mass arrival had caused alarm in the city.
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On WhatsApp, the numbers ranged from 200 to 800 people. Several Spanish TV channels relayed the alert, despite denials from the police. In reality, a group of just over a hundred migrants had indeed attempted to cross the border, but the Moroccan authorities had prevented them from doing so.
This false alarm is far from an isolated case. Since the mass arrivals of July 30 and 31, Ceuta has become the scene of a veritable disinformation epidemic. The Iberian Observatory of Digital Media, Iberifier, funded by the European Commission, recorded around a hundred false reports in just two months.
Secret tunnels, contaminated water and fabricated attacks
Among the most widespread stories is one about clandestine tunnels that allow migrants to enter the city undetected. One post even claimed that 95 minors had used an underground passage. Police sources consulted by El País denied these accounts.
Another rumor claimed that migrant camps set up near the desalination plant had contaminated the drinking water. The municipal company Acemsa had to step in twice to reassure residents.
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False accusations have also involved attacks. A video showing minors emerging from a drainage pipe in Melilla was presented as footage shot in Ceuta. In another case, a migrant was accused of throwing a brick at a woman carrying a baby. Fact-checks established that the person responsible was actually a teenager who lived in Ceuta.
Disinformation even made its way onto television. On September 16, a witness claimed on Telecinco that 68 girls had been taken from a Moroccan orphanage by soldiers and sent to Ceuta. Local child-protection services say they have no information confirming this story.
According to Pablo Matés, director of the local outlet Ceuta al Día, journalists have had to issue denials almost every day. But false alerts continue to circulate on WhatsApp, Telegram, TikTok and Instagram, often much faster than they can be checked.
