Morocco Claims Invasion of Spain Caused by 'Misinformation'

The Interior Ministry of Morocco said on Sunday that the migrant invasion of the Spanish city of Ceuta last week was caused by "misinformation" spread by human trafficking networks.
Interior Ministry spokesman Rachid el-Khalfi said there was a "misleading perception among many participants that the crossing would be easy" because the waterway is narrow and the migrants believed a recent Spanish Supreme Court ruling would prevent the cities of Ceuta and Melilla from turning them away.
Khalfi said the crisis was the result of "several overlapping factors," including "the excessive exploitation of digital platforms, the dissemination of misleading information, the role of human trafficking networks, and incorrect interpretations of legal and administrative information."
Both Moroccan and Spanish officials, including Spain's embattled socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, have insisted the tens of thousands of migrants who flooded into the Ceuta peninsula were tricked into believing the court ruling had thrown the border open to seagoing migrants, who could do exactly what the invading horde did last week: swim across the narrow waterway and walk into Ceuta unopposed.
"What has emerged from our talks with Moroccan authorities is that trafficking mafias took a self-serving interpretation of a Supreme Court ruling," Sánchez said during a visit to Ceuta on Friday.
Most observers of the crisis agree that social media played a role in creating the sudden and overwhelming rush of migrants from Morocco into Ceuta, which has left 72 people dead so far.
The BBC on Sunday was skeptical of the storyline Sánchez and Moroccan officials have apparently agreed on, which is that evil human traffickers launched an unprecedented campaign of "misinformation" to create the border surge for unclear reasons.
Khalfi, the Moroccan interior ministry spokesman, said on Sunday that his country's Public Prosecutor's office has opened several investigations into the migrant crisis, with the goal of "identifying those responsible, and determining the appropriate legal consequences in accordance with the law."