Spain Denies Intelligence Warnings Ahead of Ceuta Migrant Surge

The Spanish government has dismissed as unfounded accusations that it failed to heed early warnings from its intelligence services over the thousands of migrants that entered the North African enclave of Ceuta earlier this week. It maintains that no formal intelligence reports highlighted a crisis of this scope – although opposition parties and some sections of the press argue the alerts were not as muted as Madrid has come In the end. The mass apprehensions occurred in the early hours of 30 July which was also Morocco’s annual Throne Day celebrations. Numbers are disputed but Spanish authorities have recorded 50, 000 mixed nationalities crossing the frontier irregularly although SPANISH personal in Ceuta suggest nearer 60, 000. Most entered by swimming across the 600 meters width of the Mediterranean or by scaling the imposing barrier fences near Tarajal beach. The toll has been tragic.

72 bodies have been recovered by INTERIOR Ministry officials into Spanish territory But dead bodies are also reported by Moroccan authorities on the Moroccan side of the border. In the aftermath, the diminutive city of approximately 83,000 was soon overwhelmed, with reception centres exceeding capacity and hundreds of unaccompanied minors in immediate need of accommodation. Spanish troops were rushed in to attempt to impose law and order and to facilitate repatriations, and Madrid claimed that by early August tens of thousands had been repatriated to Morocco with Polices’ cooperation.

Still, there people think is a number of several thousand still inside the exclave, many still sleeping on the streets and other hiding out in the surrounding hills. The political argument that ensued within minutes was about what the Spanish intelligence had known and when. Government spokeswoman Elma Saiz argued that ‘not a single intelligence report alerted the government to an event of this magnitude’ adding that ‘none of us expected such an unprecedented event’.

Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska and the government delegate in Ceuta shared this opinion and engaged that there was no specific warning of a mass movement on the day. They agreed that there had been an increase in irregular arrivals in the few weeks before but defined the scale of the July 30 influx as ‘unpredictable’. Opponents have countered this explanation.

Some who hold political space on the right have found it unconvincing that, at every level, the National Intelligence Center was oblivious to the increase in border violations. Journalistic accounts based on anonymous military and civilian intelligence sources indicate that repeated warnings about the prospects of such crossings emanated before the actual day in question, which also coincided with Morocco’s EID holiday, which proved to be sensitive.Until more information confirms or refutes this hypothesis it is difficult to assess its veracity.

Davis (2004) suggests for instance that a series of smaller, water-based, test crossings in the hours leading up to the first major surges, some of which went under or around the radar of this author’s listening post, contributed a great deal to the visual, geographic and semantic vocabulary of subsequent operations. The government Though has rejected these allegations, dismissing reports of disregarding formal warnings as unfounded. It asserts that although it did observe increases in migratory pressure, it saw no indication of a collective or single-day surge in the tens of thousands. Pedro Snchez, the prime minister, has called the incident ‘an assault against Spain’s sovereignty, in response to a traffickers’ operation and not a decision by the Moroccan government’. In the face of this allegation, the Spanish government maintains close cooperation with Rabat on migration affairs.