A testimony before the court revealed that the Spanish Consul General in Tangier used a special passage to enter and exit the city of Ceuta on July 28, 2026. This has raised questions about the nature of the visit and its connection to the mass migration events that occurred two days later. According to the Spanish newspaper "El Correo", the incident occurred when a police inspector at the border crossing received instructions to open a special passage for the consul, facilitating his crossing of the border.
The police inspector, with the professional number 84.001, stated that the instructions were received during the afternoon and that he informed the head of the foreign group to implement them. He emphasized that allocating an exceptional passage for one person is not a usual procedure in the daily work of the border crossing. Such passages are typically used in specific cases, such as the passage of ambulances or buses, while border officials use the usual paths and wait for their turn.
The consul's use of the exceptional passage to enter Ceuta and then use it again to leave the city on the same day has taken on particular importance due to its timing. This occurred just two days before the mass flow of Moroccan citizens towards Ceuta, an event that has become the focus of a judicial investigation to determine responsibilities and circumstances. During the hearing, the inspector revealed that discussions and speculation circulated among some security elements at the border crossing regarding the purpose of the consul's visit.
There was speculation that the diplomatic official went to Ceuta to warn the authorities about the possible arrival of large numbers of people coming from Morocco. However, the inspector stressed that he had no direct evidence to confirm this hypothesis, stating that the matter did not go beyond discussions among his colleagues and was not an officially received or observed information. The testimony also touched on the security information available to the police before the mass migration events.
The inspector stated that on July 29, at 9:09 PM, he received a security alert indicating that the risk level had reached its maximum, but he did not receive any additional instructions to change the procedures in place or strengthen border surveillance. He pointed out that he was not authorized to make an independent decision to increase the number of security personnel or change the field deployment of forces. The head of the border crossing also stated that he was not aware, even informally, of the alert attributed to the Spanish National Intelligence Center (CNI).
The officer in charge of the border crossing stated that the message containing the risk assessment did not include specific preventive measures or instructions to increase the number of police officers. He added that changing security arrangements required orders from high command levels, such as the police top command, the operations assistant directorate, or the government delegate, emphasizing that none of these instructions were received through the administrative hierarchy.
The inspector compared what happened in 2026 with the security intervention during the migration crisis that Ceuta experienced in 2021. He stated that in 2021, the police received direct instructions, and reinforcements were deployed, establishing security arrangements that contributed to containing the flow of migrants. In contrast, regarding the events of 2026, he summarized his assessment of the situation by saying: "We made it very easy for them, and nothing was done."
Key points
- The Spanish Consul General in Tangier used a special passage to enter and exit Ceuta on July 28, 2026.
- The use of the exceptional passage by the consul has raised questions about the nature of the visit and its connection to subsequent mass migration events.
- The police inspector who testified before the court stated that he had no direct evidence to confirm the hypothesis that the consul's visit was to warn the authorities about possible mass migration.
