Marrakech – Félix Sanz Roldán, the former director of Spain’s National Intelligence Center (CNI), has called on Madrid to press the European Union for a mechanism that channels more money to Morocco to manage migration from Africa, modeled on the arrangement the bloc reached with Turkiye.
Sanz Roldán, who led the CNI for a decade, made the proposal Wednesday at an event organized by Madrid Foro Empresarial, when asked about the mass entry of migrants into the occupied enclave of Ceuta on July 30 and 31.
He held Morocco responsible for the arrivals and pinned the crisis on Rabat, arguing that the “tangible reality” was that the 80.000 migrants had arrived from Moroccan territory – a figure that appears to go up and down each time Spanish officials discuss the arrivals.
He questioned why so many theories had circulated over whether Rabat bore responsibility. Whether Spain was able to foresee the scale of what was about to happen, he argued, is a separate question.
He also faulted Madrid, arguing that if Spain genuinely wanted to establish the full truth, it should have convened the Official Secrets Commission, where the CNI director could simply have been asked when he first learned of the crisis and whom he informed. In his view, the state should have been made to “work as it should.”
His reasoning rested on Morocco’s foreign policy, which he described as centered on “the unification of the territory,” meaning the recovery of the Sahara and, in his words, “now extraordinarily Ceuta and Melilla.”
The accusation does not hold. Sanz Roldán offered no evidence tying Moroccan authorities to the crossings, recycling a charge that resurfaces in Madrid with every migration crisis.
He also conflated Morocco’s historical and geographic rights over its land with a supposed intent to weaponize migration, as if a sovereign claim to the Sahara and the occupied enclaves meant orchestrating mass crossings. Rabat denies any wrongdoing. Morocco is not the gendarme of Europe’s borders and is under no obligation to police them.
His own words undercut the charge. Sanz Roldán conceded that Morocco’s migration burden is “superior” to Spain’s, since its permeable southern desert border sees people entering continuously and spending two or three months in transit toward Europe. A country carrying that load has little reason to manufacture crises at its northern edge.
He then turned to money. When the 2016 Syrian war pushed migrants toward Greece and Turkiye, he recalled, the EU built an instrument to retain them in Turkiye and fund dignified reception conditions. That cost roughly €1.6 billion a year from 2016, and €3.5 billion this year, while Morocco has received only €152 million – a gap he noted Moroccan diplomats know well.
Sanz Roldán proposed “an instrument with Morocco like the one with Turkiye,” arguing that Spain should convince Brussels it is “a good path to control migration.” Any solution, he maintained, runs “through dialogue and cooperation.”
Brussels is already moving that way. Euronews reported on August 20 that the EU is set to boost funding for Morocco’s border control and migration management in the wake of the Ceuta crisis, as it works to finalize a strategic and comprehensive partnership with Rabat by year’s end.
According to the report, that partnership is modeled on the €7.4 billion package the Commission signed with Egypt in 2024 to support its economy, manage migration, and secure regional stability. The deal with Rabat had been years in the making but stalled until January 2026 over the dispute surrounding Western Sahara, an issue Euronews noted remains unresolved.
A Commission spokesperson told the outlet that the EU had committed €222 million to Morocco for migration management between 2021 and 2024, with a further €190 million foreseen through the end of the budget cycle in 2027.
Euronews also cited a letter Commission President Ursula von der Leyen sent Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez in early August, describing Morocco as an “important strategic partner,” particularly on migration.
