New information from several military and civilian intelligence sources suggests that the Spanish government had advance warning of the risk of a mass arrival of migrants in the North African exclave of Ceuta this week.
Intelligence alerts were issued over several days, including in the hours immediately before tens of thousands of people crossed from Morocco, sources said.
Intelligence services had warned that King Mohammed VI was likely to make a "gesture of magnanimity" at the border to coincide with Morocco's Throne Day celebrations. Those initial warnings were followed by reports of migrants swimming across from Fnideq, known as Castillejos in Spanish, and buses carrying people from different parts of Morocco towards the border.
Over the course of around ten days, nearly 1,000 people swam into Ceuta. Intelligence officials reportedly viewed this as a test by Moroccan authorities and passed that assessment on to the government.
In the end, between 60,000 and 75,000 migrants crossed into Ceuta, marking the largest migration crisis in the autonomous city's history. According to Spain's Interior Ministry, about 53,000 people had returned to Morocco in the days that followed.
