MADRID, Spain – The migration crisis in Ceuta has taken a new turn for the Spanish government as new information emerges contradicting Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska’s assertions that intelligence services did not warn of a mass crossing from Morocco.
Ceuta Crisis: Security Press Chief Dismissed Over Early Warning
According to Cadena SER, the National Intelligence Centre (CNI) had transmitted multiple warnings to Marlaska’s Interior Ministry in the weeks prior, alerting to the real risk of a mass migrant entry from Morocco through the Ceuta border. These were not isolated communications but rather several distinct alerts that, according to security sources, were disregarded. The tipping point came following the Supreme Court ruling on July 8, which limited immediate returns for those entering Ceuta and Melilla by sea. From that moment, intelligence services detected that criminal networks could exploit this legal gap to organize a mass migrant arrival, generating a powerful “call effect.” Although the CNI could not pinpoint the exact day of the surge, it did alert Marlaska’s department that the threat was imminent. The same sources maintain that the Interior Ministry did not reinforce available resources despite the warnings and kept a border that was “understaffed” in terms of personnel and equipment.
The result has been one of the most severe migration crises experienced in Ceuta, with between 50,000 and 72,000 entries from Morocco and at least 94 fatalities during the crossing, figures that have caused significant political and social shock. Deep unease exists within Spanish intelligence circles over Marlaska’s statements. They believe the Interior Minister attempted to shift blame onto the CNI to divert attention from the Interior Ministry’s failures. “These people would not have entered Spain if the necessary measures had been taken to reinforce the border,” sources asserted, insisting that the government was warned well in advance.
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Government spokesperson Elma Saiz expressed a similar line to Marlaska when asked whether she believed there had been an intelligence failure that prevented foreseeing the mass migrant entry from Morocco. She reiterated that the Executive did not have any intelligence report warning of a migration crisis of the magnitude experienced, stating that “the magnitude was not known”: “There was no way to foresee something so unprecedented.” The revelation represents a new blow for Pedro Sánchez’s government, which had maintained that the scale of the crisis was completely unexpected. If the warnings did exist, the question is no longer whether the government was informed by the CNI, but why it decided not to act in time. That is now the question threatening to haunt Marlaska and Pedro Sánchez himself.
