Spain’s intelligence service detected online mobilisation involving groups with a combined reach of around 180,000 people before the mass entry into Ceuta. Declassified files show warnings were passed on. The argument now is over what happened to them.
Spain’s CNI identified WhatsApp and Facebook mobilisation on July 29, one day before migrants overwhelmed the border at Ceuta.
According to declassified records reported by El País, the CNI’s Madrid immigration unit instructed its local chief to alert the Government Delegation.
He also contacted Guardia Civil intelligence personnel and sent an early warning to Moroccan intelligence.
The groups promoting attempts to enter Ceuta by land and sea had a combined reach of around 180,000 people.
Yet the border was overwhelmed the following day.
WHO WAS WARNED?
That question has now reached Spain’s National Court.
La Moncloa says the intelligence service did not issue a sufficiently formal high-level warning through the required channels.
Former Government Delegation chief of staff Gonzalo Sanz says he passed the information on. He resigned on Friday.
The government delegate says he was not informed.
The court has obtained the declassified records as it investigates what happened.
The intelligence therefore existed.
The dispute is over whether it reached the people who needed to act on it.
THE CONSEQUENCES ARE STILL THERE
Police began moving several hundred migrants today from an informal camp near Loma Colmenar into a new government facility at Los Rosales.
The centre has already prompted protests from nearby residents, including concern about its proximity to a nursery.
Authorities are also expanding screening intended to identify migrants without protection claims who can be returned to Morocco.
Weeks after the border was overwhelmed, Spain is still dealing with the consequences.
CNI saw the mobilisation coming.
Now a court is trying to establish why the warning did not prevent the border from collapsing.
Sources
El País: Declassified CNI warnings before the Ceuta mass entry
El País: Latest Ceuta relocation developments
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