Morocco on Monday vehemently denied Spain’s accusations that it facilitated the recent surge of migrants into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta. Rabat countered that the migration crisis stemmed from a Spanish judicial decision that inadvertently undermined measures designed to deter irregular immigration.
A senior Moroccan official asserted that Spanish authorities should have anticipated the repercussions of a July 8 court ruling. This decision restricted the immediate return of migrants arriving in Ceuta by sea to Morocco, effectively weakening previous deterrents.
According to Rabat, this judicial shift was swiftly exploited by human trafficking networks, disseminating the message that migrants would now receive protection upon entering Spanish territory. “Europe demands that we prevent crossings, yet on the other side, a red carpet is rolled out when these crossings occur,” the official stated.
Previously, the President of the Ceuta enclave, Juan Jesús Vivas, had accused Morocco of actively “encouraging and permitting” this significant migrant influx. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also issued a caution against any instrumentalization of irregular migration to exert pressure on a European Union member state.
For its part, Morocco maintains that it neither eased border controls nor reduced its security apparatus before the extensive crossings last Thursday. Rabat affirms its deployment of approximately 24,000 security personnel along its northern coastline to combat illicit immigration.
Moroccan authorities report having thwarted 79,000 attempted crossings in 2024 and 74,000 since the beginning of 2026. They emphasize that cooperation with Spain on migration management had been “exemplary” until the aforementioned judicial decision in July.
Ultimately, Rabat urges Madrid to reinstate an effective deterrence mechanism, while simultaneously declaring that Morocco “will never be complicit in an exclusively security-focused approach to migration.”