Spain’s spy agency warned of plans to storm Ceuta before mass migrant crossing, documents show

Spanish intelligence services warned their Moroccan counterparts and Madrid of plans to storm Ceuta a day before more than 70,000 migrants crossed into Spain’s North African enclave, according to documents released by the government on Wednesday.

In a July 29 note from Spain’s spy agency, the National Intelligence Centre (CNI), to the Moroccan intelligence agencies DGST and DGED, it warned of plans on social media platforms for migrants to enter Ceuta by scaling the border fence or swimming round it, taking advantage of Morocco’s national Throne Day celebrations.

On the same day, the CNI also warned the Spanish government’s representative in Ceuta of the plans, according to declassified WhatsApp messages.

“There are two different groups with a total of 180,000 followers. Just to give you an idea of the scale,” the CNI wrote in reference to the size of the social media groups.

The Moroccan government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Max Cavallari/Reuters

Six weeks after the surge in which NGOs estimate 140 people died, more than 10,000 migrants , including unaccompanied minors, remain in Ceuta, living in makeshift camps or on the enclave’s streets and beaches, according to local authorities, fueling near-daily protests by residents angry at the Spanish government ’s handling of the crisis.

The release of the documents is likely to intensify scrutiny of the operational decisions taken in the hours before the crossing and whether sufficient measures were put in place to prevent it.

But Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said the documents showed there had been no warning of the scale of the July 30 migrant surge.

“I am speaking as Spain’s foreign minister, within my remit and based on what I experienced that day. I was not aware of any information of any kind pointing to the magnitude of the avalanche,” Albares told reporters on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez last week said Spain found no evidence to conclude that July’s deadly border rush from Morocco into its enclave of Ceuta was orchestrated by Moroccan authorities, contradicting allegations by Spanish police in a report.

But Spain’s Interior Ministry reported passivity among the Moroccan border police on the day of the crossing, which it said had been due to reinforce the border with 1,000 extra police and soldiers despite it being a public holiday in Morocco, according to a July 30 report.

The Spanish government on Wednesday published 40 intelligence reports, alerts and communications related to the Ceuta migration crisis from July 1-31 after Sánchez had pledged to make them public.

They show that the situation had been brewing in the week leading up to the mass crossing.

“Since July 25, a migration crisis is developing in Ceuta with the arrival of around 1,700 migrants by sea from Morocco to the autonomous city… the available information indicates that more intrusions are to be expected in the very short-term,” Spain’s defence ministry said in an internal presentation published on July 30, describing the situation on the Moroccan coast near Ceuta as a “migratory chaos.”

The European Commission said on Wednesday it had granted Spain €114.7 million ($133.60 million) in aid to manage the situation in the North African enclave.

根据政府周三公布的文件，西班牙情报部门在超过 7 万名移民涌入西班牙北非飞地休达的前一天，就向摩洛哥同行和马德里方面发出了强攻休达的计划。

西班牙国家情报中心 (CNI) 于 7 月 29 日向摩洛哥情报机构 DGST 和 DGED 发出警告，称有人在社交媒体平台上策划让移民利用摩洛哥国庆日庆祝活动，翻越边境围栏或绕过围栏进入休达。

根据解密的 WhatsApp 消息，同一天，CNI 还就这些计划向西班牙政府驻休达代表发出了警告。

“有两个不同的群组，总共有 18 万粉丝。这只是为了让您了解其规模，”CNI 在谈到这些社交媒体群组的规模时写道。

摩洛哥政府尚未对此事作出回应。

马克斯·卡瓦拉里/路透社

据非政府组织估计，在造成 140 人死亡的移民潮发生六周后，超过 10,000 名移民（包括无人陪伴的未成年人）仍然滞留在休达，据当地政府称，他们居住在临时营地或飞地的街道和海滩上，这引发了居民几乎每天都举行的抗议活动，他们对西班牙政府处理危机的方式感到愤怒。

这些文件的公布可能会加大对偷渡事件发生前几个小时内所作出的行动决策的审查力度，以及是否采取了足够的措施来防止偷渡事件的发生。

但西班牙外交大臣何塞·曼努埃尔·阿尔瓦雷斯表示，这些文件显示，7 月 30 日移民潮的规模事先没有任何预警。

“我以西班牙外交大臣的身份，在我的职权范围内，根据我当天的经历发表意见。我事先没有任何信息表明雪崩的规模如此之大，”阿尔瓦雷斯周三告诉记者。

西班牙首相佩德罗·桑切斯上周表示，西班牙没有发现任何证据表明7月份从摩洛哥涌入其飞地休达的致命边境抢劫事件是由摩洛哥当局策划的，这与西班牙警方在一份报告中的指控相矛盾。

但据 7 月 30 日的一份报告显示，西班牙内政部称，在事件发生当天，摩洛哥边境警察表现消极，尽管当天是摩洛哥的公共假日，但摩洛哥方面本应增派 1000 名警察和士兵加强边境管控。

西班牙政府周三公布了 40 份与休达移民危机相关的情报报告、警报和通讯，时间跨度为 7 月 1 日至 31 日。此前，桑切斯曾承诺将这些文件公之于众。

这表明，大规模越境事件发生前一周，局势就已经开始酝酿。

西班牙国防部在7月30日发布的一份内部报告中表示：“自7月25日以来，休达出现了一场移民危机，约有1700名移民从摩洛哥乘船抵达这座自治城市……现有信息表明，预计在很短的时间内还会出现更多移民涌入。”该报告将休达附近摩洛哥海岸的局势描述为“移民混乱”。

欧盟委员会周三表示，已向西班牙提供 1.147 亿欧元（1.336 亿美元）的援助，以帮助其应对北非飞地局势。