On August 16, 2023, the borders of the Spanish cities of Ceuta and Melilla with Morocco are gradually returning to normalcy following an extensive security deployment by Rabat on Saturday. This action was primarily a response to potential mass crossing attempts that resulted in the detention of nearly 300 migrants, predominantly from Sub-Saharan Africa. The EFE Agency faced challenges in reporting from Fnideq (known as Castillejos during the Spanish colonial period) due to Moroccan authorities expelling EFE and TVE journalists from the city on Saturday. However, eyewitness accounts confirmed that the urban center of Fnideq remained calm, along with the hills near the border with Ceuta where confrontations took place between Moroccan security forces and migrants attempting to cross illegally.

A series of images captured on August 15 show Sub-Saharan migrants under police custody on the Moroccan side of the Ceuta border after their attempts to participate in a mass crossing towards the Spanish city. Among the voices of these migrants, Abu Bakr Camara, a 15-year-old from Guinea, shared his experience: "We were in Casablanca and heard that the border would open for us on August 15. That is why we came from Casablanca to the forest. We stayed in the woods for two weeks, sleeping there and not eating well. (…) We were told the border would be open on August 15, so we came down (from the forest) to cross. We did not come to do harm; we came to cross to seek our future there."

Similarly, Ibrahim Yebril, a 33-year-old from Sudan, recounted how misinformation fueled their movement: "A video was circulated featuring the Spanish government’s president announcing that the Ceuta border would open on August 15 and that anyone wanting to enter Europe should come. Thus, we began mobilizing from all directions. They shared this message in Spanish, which I did not understand, but there was a voice in the WhatsApp groups stating that the Spanish Prime Minister had reached an agreement with the King of Morocco to open the border."

As reported by reutersconnect.com.