Morocco's Interior Ministry has said that recent mass crossings to the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla were fuelled by misinformation, human trafficking networks and misinterpretation of a Spanish ruling banning immediate returns of migrants intercepted at sea.
The ministry blamed the sudden surge on the "malicious exploitation" of social media and the "spread of misleading information".
Figures released by the Moroccan government on Sunday showed that about 40,000 people were involved in the mass crossing into Ceuta and that 1,135 people were stopped from entering Melilla. Eleven people died, mostly by drowning while crossing, the ministry said, noting that it was fact-checking reports on deaths from the other side of the border.
The short distance separating Spanish and Moroccan shores - less than 70 metres - "created a misleading perception among many participants that the crossing would be easy," Interior Ministry spokesperson Rachid El Khalti said, quoted by Moroccan media.
The Moroccan figures were notably lower than previous ones released by the Spanish government, which said that more than 60,000 had crossed into Ceuta by land and by sea, though most had since returned to Morocco. Spanish officials put the death toll at 72.
The Spanish government has pledged to return “every last” person to Morocco. “The vast majority of those who entered have already returned to Morocco,” Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said on Monday. “Every last one of them will return.”
Spain is trying to assure its European Union neighbours that it is swiftly returning undocumented migrants in the peninsula. Its representative in Ceuta, Miguel Angel Perez, said that, in addition to the 72 fatalities, more than 1,000 people had been treated by health services. The situation in the enclave had improved markedly, he said, but more remained to be done to re-establish normality.
Some migrants drowned and others were crushed while trying to climb a breakwater and a border fence.
“It pains me deeply that young people are dying at sea,” said Karima Abenaz, a French national in Ceuta with family in Morocco. “It’s not right that, in the year 2026, women with children as young as two months old should be crossing the sea only to die.
Migrants heading back said they had initially been drawn by viral social-media videos and messages from friends suggesting that the heavily guarded border could be breached. But after reaching Ceuta, many said they found no way to continue onwards to mainland Spain.
"We came to make progress, not to be fooled," said Brahim, a bakery worker from Fez who left his job and crossed the border after watching clips of thousands doing the same. "I thought I'd build a better future there. But I was surprised in Ceuta."
Brahim said he survived for three days on water alone and could not afford the high food prices on the Spanish side. "How come a tuna sandwich was being sold for 100 dirhams ($10.75)?"
Ceuta leader Juan Jesus Vivas told El Pais the city's morgue had received 88 corpses, including some who had died in earlier, smaller attempts to reach the territory in hazardous night-time swims over the past two weeks. He said Moroccan authorities were also recovering bodies from the sea, but no official information was available.
Authorities have reinforced police and army patrols. A 500-metre floating barrier was installed off Ceuta on Saturday.
Twenty-two EU member states wrote a letter asking for coordinated action to protect external borders and for other measures after the Ceuta incident. Italy suspended passport-free Schengen travel arrangements with Spain for one month.
The EU will hold an emergency meeting of interior ministers on Tuesday.
Spain has adopted a more open stance on migrants than most other EU countries, introducing a programme to grant residency to more than half a million undocumented people.
It has rejected suggestions that the scheme encouraged the rush into Ceuta, saying that those who entered the enclave irregularly could not travel on to mainland Spain or elsewhere in the Schengen zone.
