Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez acknowledged on Monday, 12 October, that Moroccan warships had repeatedly entered Spanish territorial waters during the mass invasion of Ceuta in late July, ending 74 days of government silence over a military confrontation that unfolded alongside one of Europe’s worst migration crises.
According to El País, at least one Moroccan frigate and several patrol vessels entered waters around Ceuta without authorization on 30–31 July, as more than 80,000 illegal migrants crossed from Morocco into the Spanish enclave. The incursions continued into early August, reportedly bringing Spanish and Moroccan military vessels close to collision before Madrid deployed frigates to deter further violations.
Despite the seriousness of the confrontation, Sánchez had kept the public uninformed for more than two months. Speaking to journalists during Spain’s National Day celebrations, he dismissed the incursions as isolated incidents between neighbouring countries, emphasizing cooperation with Rabat rather than explaining why Spanish sovereignty had been violated.
‘Despite the seriousness of the confrontation, Sánchez had kept the public uninformed for more than two months’
The revelation exposes another troubling dimension of the Sánchez government’s handling of the Ceuta crisis, characterized by contradictory statements, a complete lack of transparency and repeated attempts to downplay the deteriorating security situation in the enclave. On 1 August, just two days after the crisis began, Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska claimed that the situation had been reversed within 24 hours, insisting that almost all illegal migrants had returned and the border was under control.
Yet thousands remained in Ceuta, where the crisis continued to overwhelm local resources. As recently as Monday, the Associated Press estimated that around 15,000 migrants were still present. The government’s reassuring narrative had proved dangerously detached from conditions on the ground, whether through incompetence or deliberate concealment. And it is the 84,000 local residents of Ceuta who are paying the price through the deterioration of their everyday quality of life. Not so long ago, Sánchez told them that they would have to get used to mass migration and border pressure as a new reality.
At the beginning of the crisis, and indeed for an uncomfortably long time afterwards, Sánchez himself defended Morocco even as intelligence reports increasingly pointed to Rabat as being, at the very least, highly permissive towards illegal migrants heading for Ceuta. Later reporting also alleged that Moroccan authorities had transported migrants to the border themselves.
On 31 August, Sánchez insisted that there was no intelligence implicating Moroccan authorities in organizing the mass crossings. His government maintained that position even after a police intelligence report suggested that Moroccan security personnel had helped direct migrants towards the border. It has now emerged that Moroccan warships were operating in Spanish waters during the same emergency.
The revelation adds a military dimension to a crisis that the European Parliament had already condemned as hybrid warfare. On 17 September, lawmakers denounced the instrumentalization of illegal migration against an EU member state’s territorial integrity, without knowing that Moroccan warships had also entered waters claimed by Spain. The simultaneous naval incursions raise the possibility of coordinated hybrid coercion, combining mass illegal migration with military pressure. By withholding this information, Sánchez also deprived Spain’s European partners of crucial information about the crisis.
‘By withholding this information, Sánchez also deprived Spain’s European partners of crucial information about the crisis’
That could also complicate preparations by EU member states to reverse their initial response to the crisis. On 1 August, 22 EU governments criticized Sánchez’s migration policies for creating a pull factor, while Italy temporarily suspended Schengen arrangements with Spain. A draft European Council declaration, reported by El País on 12 October, now expresses solidarity with Madrid and explicitly reaffirms Ceuta and Melilla’s place within the EU. The draft was prepared before the Moroccan naval incursions became public.
Opposition parties immediately attacked Sánchez for keeping the incursions secret, with the centre-right People’s Party questioning how Moroccan authorities could have been unaware of either the illegal migrants invading the city or the warships, and arguing that the naval incursions themselves were even more serious than the invasion.
Santiago Abascal, leader of the right-wing Vox, visited Ceuta on Monday alongside French National Rally leader Jordan Bardella, condemning what he described as a ‘Moroccan-sponsored invasion’ permitted by Sánchez’s government and demanding tougher border protection.
With snap elections approaching on 29 November and polls pointing to a comfortable parliamentary majority for the PP and Vox, Monday’s revelation adds another damaging blow to the prime minister’s increasingly fragile grip on power, potentially bringing his eight-year rule to an end.
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