Newly declassified Spanish government documents show that intelligence services warned Moroccan and Ceuta authorities on 29 July that social media groups were urging migrants to attempt a mass crossing the following day, contradicting Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's repeated claims that the scale of the influx could not have been foreseen. The disclosure matters because it has intensified opposition accusations that the government misled the public about its knowledge ahead of one of the largest migrant crossings into Spanish territory in recent years, with critics calling for accountability over the response and the deaths that followed.

Spain's National Intelligence Service (CNI) identified WhatsApp and Facebook groups, reaching an estimated 180,000 people, encouraging migrants to swim or scale the border fence into Ceuta on 30 July while authorities were distracted by holiday celebrations. At least 72,000 people crossed from Morocco on 30 and 31 July, with more than 100 deaths recorded and up to 5,000 migrants still living in makeshift camps or on the streets, fuelling local unrest. The documents form part of over 40 files released amid pressure on Sánchez following separate allegations, including a leaked police report, of possible Moroccan complicity, which the government denies. Officials, including the Ceuta government delegate, maintain the CNI messages were merely an "exchange of information" rather than a formal alert capable of predicting the crisis's magnitude.