Fake accounts and false rumours drive new Ceuta crossing campaign
Calls for a new mass crossing into Ceuta, a Spanish enclave on Morocco's Mediterranean coast, have flooded Moroccan social media, with posts urging migrants to rush the border on Saturday. An RFI investigation found the campaign was fuelled by false rumours, suspicious accounts and signs of artificial amplification.
On July 30th, Ceuta faced a migration crisis of unprecedented scale, with an estimated 80,000 migrants from Morocco arriving by boat at El Tarajal spit, according to the latest government estimates. This influx threatened to overwhelm the city of just over 83,000 inhabitants. Two weeks later, the situation remains far from resolved, acknowledged Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska on Thursday.
At least 5,000 of the irregular migrants who crossed that day's border - of which nearly half are minors - are still awaiting a resolution to their situation, facing the threat of deportation. The risk of further mass crossings, encouraged through social media as occurred then, remains, according to this Saturday's report. These are the four key factors explaining the current situation at the Ceutian border.
Written by urgent.news from El Pais's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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