The leader of Spain's Ceuta enclave has accused Morocco of helping to fuel the crisis, describing last week's border crossings as an attack on Spain's territorial integrity that was seen as being "if not orchestrated, at least encouraged or permitted by Morocco."

Spain's interior ministry said late last week that 48,300 of the roughly 50,000 people who had turned up in Ceuta, a tiny Spanish territory in north Africa, had been sent back to Morocco. The extraordinary influx overwhelmed the city of 84,000 and set off a political crisis across the EU as some member states laid blame on Spain.

Juan Jesús Vivas, the long-serving conservative leader of the territory, told El País newspaper that local people watched the events with sadness, worry and anguish. "People see this not as a migration crisis; it was fundamentally an attack, a violation of Spain's territorial integrity," he said. He drew a parallel with May 2021 when Rabat loosened border controls, allowing 10,000 people to cross into Ceuta during a diplomatic standoff.

The insinuation of Moroccan involvement appeared to be backed by the preliminary assessment of Spanish intelligence services, who cited suspicions that the influx had not been planned by Moroccan authorities but concluded that Morocco had failed to stem the tide and in some cases had even facilitated their passage. The roots of the influx probably lay in a hoax that spread on social media after a Spanish supreme court ruling that migrants arriving by sea could not be summarily deported.

In Ceuta on Monday, hundreds of people continued to sleep rough on the beach or near mosques. Ashraf, 28, said he had defied his mother's warnings after spotting posts on social media that said the border had been opened. "You might see me smile a little but inside I'm shattered," he said, recalling swimming past bodies to reach Ceuta. "The Moroccan police were pushing us toward the water and telling us 'swim, swim'."

Others were desperately seeking loved ones who were missing. One mother said she had been roaming the streets for days, searching for her children aged 13 and 16. "I need help," she said as she held up a photo of a smiling young boy. "Some migrants told me they had seen them in Ceuta, but I can't find them."

Across the EU, the crisis had seemingly ushered in a moment of reckoning after a handful of EU countries responded by calling for Spain to be suspended from the Schengen free-movement zone. Spain's foreign minister, José Manuel Albares, said there was a "synchronised reactionary international effort" spreading lies about Spain's actions, and that some European governments had amplified these falsehoods.

Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, said in a letter to Spain's prime minister that the Tuesday meeting would be a chance to draw lessons, and she commended Madrid for its swift handling. At a meeting of member states on Saturday, there was strong suspicion that the crisis was not an accident but had been coordinated, according to a source. EU states also spoke about the threat of Russian disinformation and how it could exploit the crisis.

The concerns burst into public view when Ukraine's acting foreign minister said more than 1,500 publications regarding Ceuta had been identified in pro-Russian networks. "We have detected an intensive Russian propaganda campaign across Europe using pictures from Ceuta to sow destabilisation," Andrii Sybiha wrote on social media.

Source: www.theguardian.com