Declassified files on Ceuta migrant surge spark political backlash for Spanish government

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez might have hoped declassifying official files on this summer’s mass migrant surge into Ceuta would vindicate his government’s handling of the crisis.

Instead, the documents are threatening to make a political mess even messier, in what one of Sánchez’s parliamentary allies described as an “own goal.”

According to papers published by the prime minister’s office on Wednesday, Spanish intelligence agencies and security forces issued numerous warnings that a mass incursion could happen — days before 72,000 migrants surged into one of Spain’s North African territories on July 30.

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.

But political groups from across the spectrum haven’t bought the government’s interpretation of the documents.

Ester Muñoz, parliamentary spokesperson for the center-right People’s Party, said the files proved the government had failed to prevent “the invasion and the deaths” and called for snap elections so Spaniards can “decide if we want to have a prime minister who lies to us.”

Francesc-Marc Álvaro, a lawmaker from the Republican Left of Catalonia and one of Sánchez’s parliamentary allies, said he was baffled by the decision to publish documents that appeared to contradict the government’s narrative.

“This is an own goal,” he said, adding that “in any other advanced democracy, someone would step down for this.”

“The polycrisis in Ceuta is on a higher level than all the messes we have gone through up to this legislature,” adding that the situation was undermining the government’s standing at home and abroad.