The Spanish government in Madrid has denied allegations that it ignored warnings from its intelligence service, the Centro Nacional de Inteligencia (CNI), regarding the mass arrival of tens of thousands of migrants in Ceuta, a Spanish territory in North Africa.

On Monday, officials stated that no intelligence reports had been received warning of a migration crisis on such a scale. The Ministry of the Interior in Madrid reported that 72 bodies have been recovered so far amid ongoing efforts to accommodate and repatriate the remaining migrants and to search for further fatalities.

The migration surge occurred last week when tens of thousands entered Ceuta irregularly from Morocco, mostly by swimming and some by climbing over the 6-metre-high border fence.

Miguel Tellado, spokesman for the opposition conservative People’s Party (PP), expressed skepticism about the government’s claims, saying it was difficult to imagine that the CNI had no knowledge of the impending "human wave." However, government spokeswoman Elma Saiz maintained that "no one had anticipated such an unprecedented event."

Sources