How do you like that?
The New York Times is reporting that Moroccans were encouraged to cross into Ceuta by the MOROCCAN AUTHORITIES.
Only 5 years ago, Moroccan border guards simply stepped aside after Spain hosted a Western Saharan leader Rabat opposed, and 8,000 people poured across in 2 days.
Spain’s own defense minister called it “aggression” and “blackmail” at the time.
“A State that sits on the routes can loosen or tighten the human flow like a valve to punish or extract concessions on disputes that have nothing to do with migration. These are successful pressure campaigns aimed at the softest points of soft states, and they keep working because the targets refuse to treat the operators as the enemy.”
Several migrants said they had been motivated by social media messages claiming that the Spanish border was open, though the origin of those messages remained unclear.
www.nytimes.com
The New York Times is reporting (July 31, 2026) that several Moroccan migrants who crossed into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta said Moroccan authorities encouraged or facilitated their entry. Examples from migrant interviews:
- Authorities “opened the border and let everyone go by.”
- Police pointed groups in the right direction with phrases like “Go that way, go that way.”
- Officers encouraged people with comments such as “come to Spain.”
The Times notes that the exact trigger remains unclear (social media claims of an open border circulated widely, and a recent Spanish court ruling on sea arrivals is also cited as a possible pull factor). Experts have pointed out that such a large, rapid surge (estimates of ~50,000–60,000 people) would be difficult without some degree of Moroccan border relaxation. Moroccan officials have denied deliberate orchestration and said they are cooperating on returns; Spanish officials have also publicly emphasized cooperation while many migrants returned quickly.
2021 precedent
This matches the May 2021 Ceuta crisis closely. After Spain hosted (for medical treatment) Brahim Ghali, the Polisario Front leader opposed by Morocco over Western Sahara, Moroccan border forces largely stood aside. Roughly 8,000–12,000 people crossed into Ceuta over about two days, many by swimming around breakwaters or walking at low tide. Spanish officials and contemporary reporting described Moroccan passivity as deliberate.
Spain’s then-Defense Minister Margarita Robles explicitly called the episode an “aggression” against Spanish and EU borders and “blackmail” (chantaje), stating Spain would not accept it and that using (including minor) migrants this way violated international norms.
The broader analytical point in the quote—that states controlling migration routes can treat human flows “like a valve” for leverage on unrelated disputes—is a widely recognized pattern in analyses of Morocco-Spain (and similar) border dynamics. The 2021 episode is the clearest recent illustration involving Ceuta; the 2026 events have prompted renewed discussion of the same dynamic, even as official accounts emphasize social media, economic motives, and trafficking.
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Could that generalization be any more stupid?
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