Morocco is back in international headlines on two fronts this month: a new investigation into its alleged use of Pegasus spyware, and a migrant surge into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta. Both developments draw scrutiny of Morocco from European governments and beyond, each for different reasons.”
The Pegasus investigation
The stronger of the two stories is the Pegasus investigation, published July 16 by Forbidden Stories, Amnesty International’s Security Lab, and more than a dozen media partners including Le Monde and the Guardian. A former officer of Morocco’s domestic intelligence service, DGST, testified, under the pseudonym “Safir”, that Morocco began deploying Pegasus in 2017 and used it against journalists, human rights defenders, and foreign officials, including Spanish and French targets. His account was corroborated by leaked records and other sources with knowledge of Moroccan intelligence operations, building on 2021 forensic findings that confirmed Pegasus infection of journalist Omar Radi’s phone.
Morocco has denied the allegations since 2021, filed a defamation complaint over the original reporting, and is now demanding evidence for the new claims. Spain’s own institutions have declined to treat the matter as settled, either: a 2024 Spanish intelligence report found no evidence of Moroccan involvement in surveilling Spanish targets, a Spanish court dismissed a related case for lack of independent technical proof, and Madrid told its own parliament this year that Pegasus “does not form part of bilateral relations” with Rabat. Well-corroborated whistleblower testimony alleges systematic Moroccan use of Pegasus; Morocco denies it; Spain’s government has so far declined to formally act on it.
The Ceuta crossing
Another important event unfolded on July 30, when thousands of migrants, although most of them Moroccan nationals, crossed from Morocco into Ceuta over roughly ten days, prompting Ceuta’s president to declare a humanitarian emergency and request Madrid send troops — a request the Spanish interior ministry denied, citing rules that don’t classify migration as a civil-protection emergency (it did send 60 additional troops). The White House criticized Spain’s government directly, tying the surge to Spain’s immigration policies.
The scale invites comparison to May 2021, when a much larger crossing — roughly 10,000 people in days — followed Morocco visibly loosening border enforcement, which Spain’s defense minister at the time called “blackmail” tied to a diplomatic dispute over Western Sahara. That episode is the empirical basis for the “migration as leverage” thesis, documented since in writing from the European Parliament’s research service and the European Council on Foreign Relations. This crossing is smaller, and there is no official Spanish accusation this time that Morocco deliberately loosened controls, but the precedent is why Ceuta draws attention whenever numbers spike.
Morocco under scrutiny
These two events put Morocco’s conduct — at home and at its borders — in front of European governments, courts, and media at the same time. Rabat is facing credible, well-documented allegations of covert surveillance abroad, and a fresh round of scrutiny over how it manages migration pressure toward Spain. Neither story is resolved since Morocco denies the Pegasus allegations and Spain’s institutions have so far declined to confirm them, while the Ceuta surge’s cause remains an open question for Madrid to sort out. What’s clear, however, is that both have Morocco answering to European capitals this summer, on two different fronts, in the same news cycle.
