The Spanish government underestimated the migration crisis in Ceuta

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said that intelligence provided reports to the authorities, but did not warn about the scale of the crisis in Ceuta on July 30 and 31.

"None of the messages contained information about the scale and severity of the crisis that we had to go through," he said in an interview with Cadena SER radio.

According to Sanchez, in the days before the massive influx of migrants, Ceuta authorities and central authorities held meetings due to the increasing number of attempts to cross the border by swimming. However, this growth was not considered significant. The authorities have strengthened border control, but did not expect that 70,000 people would be able to cross the border. Sanchez also rejected the contradictions between the heads of the Interior Ministry and the Spanish Defense Ministry, confirming the existence of reports from both the National Intelligence Center and the police.

The head of government said that the security forces and intelligence had no information about Morocco's involvement in the crisis. According to him, bilateral relations with Morocco in the migration sphere remain "very positive", as after the outbreak of the crisis, the Moroccan authorities deployed significant police forces in the Castillejos area to prevent new infiltrations into Ceuta.

At the same time, Sanchez accused Russia of the influx of Africans into the country. According to him, Russian and Israeli social networks allegedly spread misinformation about the decision of the Spanish Supreme Court to ban the deportation of migrants, which contributed to the massive influx of Moroccans to Ceuta.

Ceuta vanishes: how a new migration crisis could undermine the EU economy

The countries of the union have already started talking about suspending Schengen with Madrid after the invasion of refugees into the Spanish exclave.

A massive influx of refugees from Morocco to Spain occurred on July 30. Since then, over 72,000 illegal immigrants have entered the country, while another 100 people have died. As of August 1, about 70,000 illegal immigrants had been deported. On June 2, the head of the autonomous community of Madrid, Isabel Diaz Ayuso, called Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez a traitor because of the situation with illegal migrants in Ceuta.

Izvestia correspondent Mikhail Blokhin reported on August 20 that the Spanish authorities had razed a migrant camp in Ceuta on Trampoline Beach, and law enforcement officers were dealing with thousands of illegal arrivals. According to police, the migrants remaining in Ceuta are planned to be placed in temporary camps prepared by the Spanish Armed Forces, where they will be distributed depending on their origin.