Spanish intelligence agencies issued warnings for days about a potential mass arrival of migrants in Ceuta, including in the hours before tens of thousands crossed from Morocco this week. Despite this advance knowledge, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez described the mass crossing as a “violation of Spain’s territorial integrity.” This framing immediately criminalised human movement, diverting attention from the systemic failures of Europe’s border regime.
Leader of the Popular Party, Alberto Núñez Feijoo, had also publicly warned of the situation, stating the Spanish government was aware since last Monday. Intelligence services, as reported by The Objective media, specifically cautioned that King Mohammed VI was likely to make a “gesture of magnanimity” at the border. This gesture was anticipated to coincide with Morocco’s Throne Day celebrations, highlighting the political instrumentalisation of migrants at Europe's external frontiers.
These warnings were followed by concrete reports of people swimming across from Fnideq, known as Castillejos in Spanish. Buses were also observed carrying individuals from various parts of Morocco towards the border. Over approximately ten days, nearly 1,000 people successfully swam into Ceuta. Intelligence officials reportedly interpreted these crossings as a deliberate test by Moroccan authorities, an assessment they relayed to the Spanish government.
Ultimately, between 60,000 and 75,000 migrants managed to cross into Ceuta, marking the largest migration crisis in the autonomous city’s history. In the days immediately following, Spain’s Interior Ministry reported that about 53,000 people had been returned to Morocco. This rapid expulsion underscores the brutal efficiency of the deportation machine, prioritising border enforcement over asylum processing.
The Border Regime's Complicity
Civil Guard and National Police stationed at the Tarajal border crossing were reportedly unable to stop the influx of migrants. Instead, their focus shifted to assisting the injured, according to several sources. These same sources criticised Madrid for not deploying the army immediately, despite military units in both Ceuta and Melilla being on standby. Officers deployed in the area also reported that the Moroccan gendarmerie stood “with their arms folded” while migrants attempted the crossing, both along the breakwater and on the access road to the border crossing where others climbed over fences and roofs. This inaction by Moroccan forces, acting as Europe's outsourced border guards, reveals the cynical choreography of deterrence.
Civil Guard sources added that the current situation differed from May 2021, when Morocco relaxed its border controls in a diplomatic response to Spain’s decision to admit the Polisario Front leader, Brahim Ghali. This time, the number of people swimming into Ceuta had already been rising for weeks. This increase was partly attributed to a Spanish Supreme Court ruling that prohibited the immediate return of migrants who reached Spanish territory by swimming, a rare legal challenge to the summary pushback policies of Fortress Europe.
Rhetoric Versus Reality
Despite the clear evidence of a politically managed border situation, the Interior Ministry insisted hours later that cooperation with Morocco was “exemplary, loyal and permanent.” Prime Minister Sánchez echoed this sentiment, stating Moroccan authorities had cooperated “swiftly and consistently” from the outset. He added that Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska had reinforced border security as arrivals by sea increased. This reinforcement amounted to about thirty additional officers and a boat that, a few days later, broke down, exposing the performative nature of these measures.
Despite repeated warnings from intelligence agencies, the Ministry of the Interior did not order the deployment of substantial reinforcements until late Thursday, 31 July 2026. Only then was the army called in, alongside additional personnel from the Civil Guard and the National Police. This delay, in the face of clear intelligence, highlights a deliberate political calculation, treating human lives as pawns in a larger geopolitical game rather than upholding fundamental human rights.