Cyprus News Agency

Sanchez said in a statement on his social media account that documents published today showed that on July 29, the CNI informed the Government Delegation in Ceuta that a call for irregular entry into the city during the Throne Day week had been posted in two Facebook groups.

Sanchez said the CNI had also reported that the groups had a combined total of 180,000 followers, adding that the existence of the campaign was known and monitored by other institutions.

Sanchez said, however, that the information did not provide any indication of the scale, nature or likelihood of what later occurred and could not be interpreted in that way.

Stating that the CNI had not made such an assessment either, Sanchez said the agency had conveyed the information only through a message and a brief phone call to the Cabinet of the Government Delegation in Ceuta and the Gendarmerie UCE-3 unit, and that no high-level warning had been issued to the Armed Forces, National Police or the chain of command at the Ministry of Defence.

Sanchez argued that, based on the information available at the time, the migration crisis that occurred on July 30 and 31 could not have been predicted and that no competent authority in Spain or the European Union had foreseen it.

Sanchez said the government and public employees acted once the threat materialized and mobilized all available resources, adding that efforts would continue to return Ceuta to normality and restore its level of prosperity.