“Statement issued by the Spanish Government: ‘It has been decided to open the border crossing points on 15 August temporarily and for a determined period of time not exceeding 15 hours, from 10:00 in the morning until 23:00 at night, in order to attend to cases of urgency and facilitate the movement of accumulated traffic’. This is a message circulating on Instagram accounts that are spreading a new entry into Ceuta for 15 August 2026. The Spanish Executive responds to Maldita.es that it is “not entirely correct”: the border will operate “normally” and “uncontrolled passage will not be allowed”. But this screenshot has gone viral in WhatsApp groups alongside messages asking whether it is better to cross into Ceuta through the forest or by sea.
The disinformation that the Ceuta border will be open on 15 August “temporarily”
None of the appearances and publications, either by the head of the Executive, Pedro Sánchez, or by other members of the Government concerning Ceuta, such as Fernando Grande-Marlaska, Minister of the Interior and responsible for border matters, mention the words attributed to them by this content. The content does not appear on the website where, according to the image, it would have been published either. In addition, the Government’s communications department tells Maldita.es that the border between Spain and Morocco, both in Ceuta and in Melilla, is an international border which, “under normal conditions, is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Therefore, it is not that it is going to open next 15 August, but rather that it is already open and operating normally”.
They add that this “does not mean that there is uncontrolled passage, but that, as happens between any of the borders between the European Union and third countries, it is regulated and controlled transit, with all the relevant documentary and security procedures”. Therefore, it has not been announced that there will be a “temporary opening” of the fence between Ceuta and Melilla for 15 hours on 15 August to “attend to cases of urgency”.
The 10th, the 13th, the 15th? Through the forest or by sea? Is Melilla open? Discussions in the groups about when it is better to cross
The message about the “opening” of the fence on 15 August was shared in one of the 29 WhatsApp groups that we have analyzed at Maldita.es and where they organize for a new entry into Ceuta. Another user in the group asks if it is “true”, but we did not find a specific response to this message.
Immediately afterwards, several users talk about how to cross into Spain: “Guys, shall we get together to pay for a zodiac boat? We only put in 400 dirhams each”, a user posted ( ) at one in the morning (Spanish peninsular time) on 6 August.
Another then asks whether they think it is better to go through the forest or cross to Ceuta by sea: “so I know whether to bring my flippers”, writes ‘M.’ “Better through the mountains”, replies a user with the green icon. “And what if you get discovered? People are impulsive and instead of fleeing from the drone they chase it”, adds ‘M’, whom we have also identified in other groups.
A new interlocutor, ‘N’, joins the conversation, replying to ‘M.’’s message about the flippers: “They are going to confiscate your flippers on the bus. By train it is almost impossible”. To which ‘M.’, in response to the message about the bus, tells him that he will go by train and ‘N’ adds: “they won’t let you buy the ticket”.
In response to ‘N’’s message saying that they would not let him buy the ticket, ‘M.’ asks him why, and this user replies: “How old are you?”, to which ‘M.’ tells him that he is 14 and a boy he is going with is 16 years old. Quoting that message, ‘N’ adds: “Does he have an identity document?” At this point ‘M.’ explains an operational detail, there would be intermediaries to facilitate transfers to the border: “I don’t know. A girl spoke to me and told me that they would give me the ticket. If they don’t, go and talk to her if she is there, because she is usually around checking that everything is okay”.
‘N’ replies: “They are going to tell you that the north is closed + you need the identity card”. And the user with the green icon enters the conversation again to say: “I have one”, referring to the identity card. At that point, ‘M.’ tells them that he has managed to get a train ticket. The screenshot shows that he will make the journey from Salles Briquet, in the town of Salé, north of Rabat, to Tangier, about 70 km from Ceuta. At Maldita.es we have verified that this journey exists at that time and is operated by the Moroccan state railway company ONCF.
After talking about the means of transport to get around, they also debate whether Ceuta or Melilla is better: “Melilla is not viable, too many people are going to go. I have already advised you”, says ‘M.’. To which ‘N’ replies: “Probably more [people] will go to Ceuta”. And ‘M.’ adds: “No, I know, Melilla is very heavily monitored, that’s why people say that supposedly Ceuta will be sealed off”. A new user enters the conversation to say: “No, on the contrary, Ceuta is where a huge number of people are going to go, and besides it is small”.
It is at this point that ‘M.’ gives dates for possible entries into Ceuta: “The thing is that we are only [going to make] one attempt, but they, since there are many of them, are going to make two or even three attempts: one will be on the 9th or 10th, and the second on the 15th”. Without us having been able to identify who he is referring to with “they”. “You yourself will see what you do and where you get yourself into”, ‘M.’ replies to the user who said that he would try to go to Melilla because Ceuta is small and many people will go there. “May God make it easy for all of you, guys”, he replies.
The conversation concludes with a message from ‘M.’ in which he says that Spain “is not paying attention to Melilla”; that in Ceuta “they have started gathering” the migrants “and they are going to transfer them to Madrid”. Something that the Government has not announced, but rather, according to the Immigration Law, although adults can be subject to immediate returns, minors remain under the guardianship of the autonomous community in which they are located and may be relocated to other Spanish autonomous communities.
As can be seen in the screenshots of the conversations, many of these discussions take place during the early hours of the morning. At Maldita.es we have analyzed the activity of these groups from the night of 2 August until midday on the 7th, and it can be seen how between midnight and 5 in the morning the greatest number of messages are sent, with 40.7% of the total.
The organization of the WhatsApp groups: a leading voice, surveys and links to Instagram
At Maldita.es we have joined 29 WhatsApp groups that talk about entries into Ceuta or Melilla in the first half of August. As of 7 August, the smallest had around twenty members, the largest almost 150, although members joining and leaving (including expulsions) are constant. As we have already explained, compared with the thousands of people who make up the Facebook groups, WhatsApp groups are smaller because they are more operational.
In some of these groups there is a leading voice, a person who gradually sets the plan, although they try to reach consensus among the members of the group. That is why they conduct surveys so that they can vote, for example, on when to carry out the entry into Ceuta: the options range from August 9th to the 15th of the same month, when the entry was initially decided.
They also voted to decide whether to go through the forest towards Ceuta, because “by sea it is dangerous”, or whether it was better to enter Melilla. In addition, for those who want to try to cross into Melilla, they offer to move to specific WhatsApp groups about that other autonomous city.
The use of surveys is common; in one group they also ask how many are of legal age and how many are minors, in another, about the specific age of the members of the group. Something that may be conditioned by some disinformation that has circulated about everyone who crossed into Ceuta being relocated to mainland Spain, a condition that only applies to minors.
Likewise, on WhatsApp they also send links to Instagram with content related to their entry into Ceuta or posts covering news related to it, such as the Supreme Court ruling concerning Ceuta and Melilla, ‘memes’ about the buoy that has been installed in Ceuta to comply with the Supreme Court’s ruling or the disinformation, as we have already reported, that Spain had announced that the border would open on 15 August, an announcement that has not been made, but which on Instagram, according to an analysis of the most viral posts, comes from accounts that were inactive or that were recently created.
For this article, we collaborated with AFCN (Arab Fact-Checking Network), who belongs to the Arab Reporters of Investigative Journalism (ARIJ) organization.