Lorraine Williamson
The Spanish government has published 40 reports, alerts and communications covering the weeks leading up to the crisis, providing the clearest picture yet of what the country’s security and intelligence services knew before tens of thousands of people crossed from Morocco on 30 and 31 July.
The documents come from the CNI intelligence service, Policía Nacional, Guardia Civil and the Armed Forces Intelligence Centre, CIFAS. They cover the period from 1 to 31 July and include not only formal intelligence reports but messages showing who received information and when.
Among the most significant material is a series of warnings issued by the CNI on 29 July, one day before the mass crossings began.
CNI warned of calls to enter Ceuta by fence and sea
At 1.52 pm on 29 July, a CNI officer in Ceuta sent a WhatsApp message to the Government Delegation warning that calls were circulating on social media for people to attempt to enter Ceuta the following day.
The message specifically referred to plans for an entry “by fence and sea” at 8.00 pm on 30 July, taking advantage of Morocco’s Throne Day celebrations.
The CNI said two different social-media groups promoting the calls had a combined 180,000 followers, adding the figure to demonstrate the potential reach of the messages.
Minutes later, the intelligence service also contacted a Guardia Civil intelligence unit about the situation. The CNI said it had information about attempted entries by swimming and across the fence and that several Facebook and WhatsApp groups were encouraging people to take part.
Spanish intelligence also warned Morocco
Later that same day, at 6.26 pm, the CNI issued what it described as an “early warning” to Morocco’s domestic and foreign intelligence services, the DGST and DGED.
The two-page note said several calls were being organised for people to enter Ceuta both by swimming and through the border fence during the week of the Throne Day celebrations.
Among the online groups identified by Spanish intelligence was a WhatsApp group whose name translated as “Assault on the Ceuta fence”, which the CNI said was preparing an attempted crossing for 30 July.
Another Facebook group had more than 160,000 members, while a second group identified by investigators had more than 22,000.
The intelligence note asked the Moroccan services for their continued cooperation and said any further information obtained would be passed on.
Concerns had emerged before 29 July
The newly released documents also show that concerns over the situation in Ceuta did not begin on the eve of the mass crossings.
On 27 July, messages between the Government Delegation and the CNI referred to an urgent meeting involving the city authorities, Policía Nacional and Guardia Civil concerning people attempting to reach Ceuta by swimming.
That same day, the CNI produced a report examining irregular migration towards Spain. Further police and Guardia Civil communications followed on 28 and 29 July.
The documentation therefore establishes that Spanish authorities were monitoring increasing migration pressure and, by 29 July, had identified specific online calls for coordinated attempts to enter Ceuta the following day.
Did Spain know what was about to happen?
The publication of the documents is likely to intensify the political dispute over whether the Spanish government had sufficient warning of the crisis.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has maintained that none of the intelligence available before the crossings predicted the scale, nature or probability of what eventually happened.
That distinction is important. The newly released material clearly demonstrates that warnings existed about planned attempts to enter Ceuta and that these were shared with Spanish authorities and Moroccan intelligence. It does not, however, show that the security services predicted that the calls would result in an event on the extraordinary scale subsequently seen.
The documents were released after Sánchez promised during his appearance before Congress on 3 September that the relevant information would be made public so citizens could examine what institutions knew before and during the crisis.
Forty documents now open to public scrutiny
The government approved the declassification of information from the CNI and CIFAS at Tuesday’s Council of Ministers meeting.
The collection now published by La Moncloa contains 40 reports and communications from the CNI, Policía Nacional, Guardia Civil and military intelligence. Personal details and information that could compromise security operations have been removed.
Each document is accompanied by information showing its date and time, the organisation responsible, how it was distributed and, where appropriate, which institutions received it.
Their publication opens a new phase in scrutiny of the Ceuta crisis, allowing the warnings issued before 30 July, the response as the crossings began, and the information exchanged between Spanish agencies to be examined against the events that subsequently unfolded.