One day before the influx, Spain’s National Intelligence Service warned the Civil Guard and the Government Delegation in Ceuta — the office representing the Sánchez government in the city — that it had detected messages calling for a mass crossing the following day.
“There is a call on social media for an assault by fence and sea tomorrow,” an intelligence agent wrote in a WhatsApp message to the delegation’s chief of staff, adding that the groups discussing the surge had 180,000 followers.
Hours later, the intelligence service sent an urgent message to its Moroccan counterparts warning of the planned incursion and thanking Rabat for its “invaluable and continued collaboration in this matter.”
The documents also include 18 reports noting an increase in unauthorized entries into Ceuta earlier in the summer, and a July 8 letter from the Civil Guard proposing border security be reinforced.
The Spanish government insists the documents show there was no way of preventing the migrant surge. The reports did not predict “the scale, nature, or probability” of what happened afterward, Sánchez said in a post on X.
Government Delegate in Ceuta Miguel Ángel Pérez Triano on Thursday downplayed the warnings received by his office, arguing that they could not be considered to be formal alerts because they were relayed by WhatsApp instead of official channels.