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Morocco accused of helping organise mass migrant arrival in Ceuta, police report claims
A report handed to Spain’s National Court suggests Moroccan security forces may have helped direct thousands of migrants towards the Spanish border
A National Police report has allegedly implicated Moroccan security forces in the planning and execution of the mass arrival of migrants in Ceuta on July 30 and 31, potentially influencing whether Spain’s National Court takes over the investigation.
The report, prepared by the National Immigration and Borders Centre (CENIF), was handed to National Court investigating judge María Tardón on Monday August 31. She has since forwarded it to the Public Prosecutor’s Office while awaiting its position on whether the National Court should investigate the events.
According to legal sources, the report appears to rule out the possibility that the mass arrival was entirely spontaneous. Instead, it points to alleged involvement by Moroccan agents who may have directed tens of thousands of people towards the Spanish border and helped facilitate their crossing by sea.
The findings appear to contradict the position taken by Pedro Sánchez’s government in the weeks following the crisis, with the president attempting to distance Morocco from the events during his first public appearance since July.
Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska has asked National Police Director General Francisco Pardo to explain when the information contained in the report was obtained. He argued that it should have been shared immediately with Spain’s National Security Council once the situation had been declared a matter of national security.
The minister said this information was essential for the government to make decisions about the crisis “in the exercise of its constitutional functions”.
A separate National Police report, reportedly prepared on July 29, had warned of an “extreme” risk of a mass arrival in Ceuta. Territorial Policy Minister Ángel Víctor Torres said that if Spanish authorities had been warned that 70,000 people were expected to enter, “that information was not conveyed to the Spanish Government”.
The alleged involvement of Moroccan state security forces could strengthen the case for the National Court to take over the investigation if the events are considered an attempt by a foreign state to pressure or destabilise Spain.
Judge Tardón opened preliminary proceedings on August 3 after a complaint from political party Iustitia Europa. She had specifically asked police to establish whether the mass arrival was a “concerted or directed action”.
The judge also requested a report from the Guardia Civil’s Information Unit on whether it had received warnings before the arrivals. That report has not yet been submitted.
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