World📡 New York TimesBy Carlos BarragánSep 9, 2026👁 1 views

Spain Declassifies Warning to Morocco About Migrant Crossing Plans

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Spain Declassifies Document Showing Morocco Was Warned of Migrant Crossing Plans

Spain’s intelligence service had alerted Morocco about social media calls for a border exodus into Ceuta, which led to more than 100 deaths and a political crisis in Spain.

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Migrants waiting for humanitarian assistance on Aug. 1 after tens of thousands crossed into Ceuta, Spain, on the northern tip of Africa.Credit...Finbarr O'Reilly for The New York Times

Reporting from Madrid

Sept. 9, 2026Leer en español

The Spanish government on Wednesday declassified a document showing that the country’s intelligence service had notified its Moroccan counterpart of calls on social media for migrants to enter the Spanish exclave of Ceuta, a day before 70,000 people surged across the Moroccan border.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez of Spain promised the release of documents related to what the government knew ahead of and during the surge in a parliamentary session last week filled with accusations over who bore responsibility for the mass crossing, which began on July 30 and killed 141 people.

The episode has caused a crisis in Ceuta, a city of 84,000 people in North Africa, and heaped political pressure on Mr. Sánchez and his leftist, pro-immigration government. The conservative opposition has called the migrant crossing an “invasion” that Mr. Sánchez failed to stop.

Although more than 90 percent of the migrants who arrived in Ceuta had returned to Morocco within 72 hours, the government has said that at least 5,000 others remain, with many living in a tent city on a beach.

Many residents of Ceuta have protested what they say is their abandonment by the government, and polls across Spain show that an overwhelming majority of Spaniards blame Morocco.

The declassified documents show that the Spanish intelligence service had also notified an official of the national government in Ceuta. But they didn’t add new information on the most pressing and politically explosive accusations, including whether the Moroccan government had played an active role in the crossing or why its border guards had failed to stop crossings.

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