The Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, stated that Spain and the European Union were the target of an attack in Ceuta, referring to the migration crisis that led to the entry of more than 70,000 people into the autonomous city in a short span of time. Ceuta has a resident population of approximately 83,500 inhabitants.
Sánchez exonerated Morocco from responsibility for the events, contradicting the accusations that were made by the Spanish Government against the Moroccan authorities following the crisis. The diplomatic tension between the two countries intensified when Spain implicitly accused Morocco of having used immigration as a form of political pressure.
The prime minister insisted that his Executive received no information in the days prior to the crisis that would have allowed them to anticipate its magnitude. According to Sánchez, the Spanish authorities had no indications that predicted the mass arrival of people at Ceuta's land border.
The crisis caused unprecedented overload on the services and resources of the Spanish city in North Africa, forcing authorities to repatriate thousands of people and reinforce border controls. The incident marked one of the largest migratory flows ever at the border between Ceuta and Morocco.
