A senior Moroccan government official told reporters on Monday that Spanish authorities ought to have foreseen how a Spanish court ruling would affect efforts to deter irregular migration and contributed to the large-scale crossings into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in northern Morocco last week.
Spanish authorities estimate that about 69,500 migrants have returned from Ceuta to Morocco since the recent crossings, while Moroccan officials report that roughly 40,000 people entered the enclave. The death toll is reported as 72 on the Spanish side of the border and 11 on the Moroccan side.
The Moroccan official, speaking in what was described as the first briefing since the crisis unfolded, said the ruling of July 8 - which limited the immediate return of migrants who reach Spanish enclaves by sea - removed a key element of deterrence. He told reporters that local authorities in Ceuta should have anticipated the consequences of a decision that, in his view, deactivated a practical mechanism discouraging irregular sea crossings.
He rejected any suggestion that Rabat eased border controls or scaled back security deployments before the mass crossing on Thursday, saying Morocco had not relaxed its posture. Morocco’s approach to migration control, he said, relies on prevention through the deployment of around 24,000 security personnel along its northern coast and on deterrence via rapid readmissions when migrants enter Spanish territory illegally.
According to the official, trafficking networks moved quickly to take advantage of the ruling. "The message became just cross and you will be protected," he said. He added a wider rebuke aimed at European expectations, saying: "Europe asks us to stop migrants from crossing, but on the other side they roll the red carpet when they cross!"
Ceuta Regional President Juan Jesus Vivas has accused Rabat of having "encouraged and permitted" the influx. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned against any attempt to use irregular migration to exert pressure on an EU member state.
The Moroccan official described Moroccan-Spanish cooperation on border control as "exemplary" prior to the ruling, saying years of consistent cooperation were disrupted by the court decision. He said it is for Spain to find a way to restore the deterrent effect that the ruling, in his view, had removed. "It is up to Spain to find a solution to restore deterrence," he said. "Morocco will never be complicit in a purely security-based approach to migration," he added.
Rabat provided figures on prevention efforts this year and last, saying Morocco stopped 79,000 attempted crossings in 2024 and 74,000 in the previous year, using those figures to underline the scale of its enforcement activity along the northern coast.
As the two countries and European institutions respond, the Moroccan government framed the immediate challenge as restoring a balance between prevention and deterrence in the face of a judicial decision that it says was exploited by criminal networks and that had predictable effects on migration flows.