The trail of disinformation that fuelled the promises regarding Ceuta

“Don’t believe anyone who tells you that if you enter Ceuta, they’ll send you back. You won’t be deported,” says a young Moroccan man in a video which, even after it was taken down, has been reposted by other social media accounts to encourage people to head for the Spanish exclave. Although it is not possible to attribute the arrival of over 70,000 people in Ceuta irregularly solely to disinformation on social media, according to the Spanish and Moroccan governments and the European Commissioner for Migration, Magnus Brunner, it was certainly one of the factors that drove thousands of people to cross the border.

Many online posts referred to the Spanish Supreme Court’s ruling on the repatriation of migrants, handed down on 29 June, which stated that migrants intercepted at sea could not be immediately turned back at the border between the Spanish territories of Ceuta and Melilla. However, the ruling concerned solely the legal procedure and did not recognise any right to remain in Spain; it merely established that migrants intercepted after arriving by sea could not be immediately sent back, but must undergo the standard legal repatriation procedure provided for by Spain. Yet in numerous posts shared on Facebook, Telegram and WhatsApp groups, the ruling was presented as a “historic” decision: the Spanish media outlet Maldita.es, which specialises in fact-checking and disinformation, identified at least ten Facebook groups in which news of the ruling was published both before and after thousands of people entered Ceuta on the night of 30 July.

A few hours earlier, in one group a user asked: “Is the door still open?”, whilst in another it read: “Spanish Supreme Court: there are no plans for the immediate deportation of migrants who swim to Ceuta and Melilla”. On TikTok, a Moroccan blogger explains the ruling, saying: “This law, which has come into force in Spain, stipulates that it is forbidden to send back anyone who has reached Spain by swimming, and the Navy is prohibited from sending them back”. The video has nearly 4,000 likes; one commenter replies: “I’d like to go, but I can’t swim.” According to other posts published on Facebook groups as early as the beginning of July, the Spanish programme to regularise the status of hundreds of thousands of irregular migrants was due to end on 30 July; one such post has over 28,000 likes. This was also fake news: the programme only applied to irregular migrants who had already been in Spain for at least five months prior to the end of 2025 and who were able to submit an application between April and 30 June.

Reuters then interviewed a number of migrants who said they had been persuaded to set off after seeing videos published by El Faro de Ceuta, a local media outlet which, on 23 July, had reported that around 100 people had reached Ceuta, linking the arrivals to the Supreme Court’s decision. The video shows a number of young people laughing, giving the thumbs-up and making victory signs, which “had the unexpected effect of encouraging more people to attempt the crossing”, writes the news agency. On 28 July, the same local newspaper published another report entitled “Ceuta can’t cope any longer”; this time, the protagonists of the videos used as evidence were two women walking through the city in their wet clothes after having swum ashore: “The footage has been widely viewed in Morocco, according to three migrants interviewed by Reuters.”

Numerous appeals and advice were then posted on Facebook and WhatsApp groups regarding the logistical aspects of the crossing, the route to follow, and photos of flippers and buoys to take with you. Maldita.es has identified four WhatsApp groups and over 50 Instagram accounts where people are still discussing crossing the border from Morocco to Ceuta on 15 August:  WhatsApp acts more as an ‘operations centre’; one of the shared links reads: ‘Brothers, everyone is welcome to join us at sunset and sunrise on the 15th’. In the comments, someone asks: ‘What’s the plan for 15 August?’. On Instagram, meanwhile, posts explain how to cross the border; most users share their own photos with the date 15 August and the hashtags ‘Fenideq’, ‘Fnidaq’ or ‘FENIDG CEUTA’ to indicate the starting point in Morocco. In response to a message dated 2 August asking, “What’s happened to the few people who are still hiding in Ceuta and haven’t returned?”, one user replied: “They’ve all left; there isn’t a single one left in the city centre, mate.”