Spanish authorities say roughly 60,000 migrants crossed from Morocco into the North African enclave of Ceuta on July 30-31, mostly by sea, in one of the largest single migration events at the border in years. Most have since returned to Morocco, but at least 88 people died, mainly by drowning, according to Spanish estimates.
Morocco's Foreign Ministry said Monday it had cautioned Spain's government in July that a mass crossing was likely, after Spain's Supreme Court ruled on July 8 that migrants arriving by sea at Ceuta and Melilla could no longer be deported immediately.
The ministry said it valued its "close cooperation" with Madrid and voiced disappointment at Spanish and other EU politicians who it said had blamed Rabat for the crisis.
Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles, in comments Monday evening, called on Morocco to carry out a full investigation to "clarify the causes" of the deaths. She said responsibility lay with "those who deceive people through mafias" that organize such crossings.
The crossings have drawn wider political fallout. The Nation magazine reported that video footage showed most migrants carried no bags or belongings, and cited additional footage appearing to show trucks bringing young men to the border and Moroccan guards allowing them through, raising questions among some observers about whether the crossing was coordinated by Moroccan authorities.
The magazine linked the episode to friction between Rabat and Madrid over Sanchez's outreach to Algeria, Morocco's regional rival. The report also argued that Morocco's own record undercuts any anti-colonial framing of the episode, noting the kingdom's decades-long occupation of Western Sahara, a territory the United Nations classifies as non-self-governing and which only the United States and Israel recognize as under Moroccan sovereignty. The magazine described the border surge as "part of efforts by the growing US-Israeli-Moroccan nexus" tied to the Abraham Accords, aimed at destabilizing Spain's government and undermining international law.
In the United States, officials including Vice President JD Vance and Donald Trump used the Ceuta crossings as talking points in domestic political debate over immigration policy, with Vance blaming the crisis on “radical left-wing globalist policies that have enabled the Invasion of the West”.
Moroccan officials, while stressing what they called close cooperation with Madrid, said it was disappointed by comments from some Spanish and other European Union politicians blaming Rabat for the crisis.
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Source: Polish Radio, PAP, The Nation