Spain's Ministry of Defence, led by Margarita Robles, contracted a package of subsidised holidays to Morocco in May for Army personnel that ended up running in the middle of the largest migration crisis Ceuta has ever faced, where more than 3,000 members of the Armed Forces remain deployed.
The trip, scheduled for August 3 to 10, began just four days after more than 72,000 people crossed the border into Ceuta irregularly. The newspaper La Razón asked the ministry whether the tour went ahead as planned or was cancelled because of the crisis.
Ministry calls timing a coincidence
The ministry said the trip involved holiday and cultural destinations that are always offered to military personnel, and described the timing as a coincidence. It said the trip had been organised months earlier and was included in the Army's official call for applications, published in the Ministry's Official Bulletin, which La Razón has seen.
The call offered 30 places to travel to Morocco, alongside other international destinations including Italy, France and Germany, as part of the Army's Social Action programme. The price was fixed at 966.79 euros per person on a full-board basis, with six of the places reserved for personnel stationed in operational zones.
These international trips are aimed primarily at active-duty military personnel and professionals from the Army and its Common Corps assigned to Social Action, though reserve and retired personnel and some family members can also take part as beneficiaries. The documentation seen by La Razón does not show whether the 30 places were filled exclusively by active-duty troops.
Spain's Official State Gazette published the formalisation of the Army's 2026 Framework Agreement for International Trips in May, in which Morocco appeared as lot number 10. The contract was awarded to the travel agency Nautalia Viajes for 29,181.82 euros.
Itinerary passed within 100km of Ceuta
The programme was fixed in advance. Participants were due to fly from Madrid to Marrakech on August 3 to begin an eight-day, seven-night tour taking in Marrakech, Ouarzazate, the Todra Gorge, Merzouga, Fez, Meknes, Chefchaouen and Tangier, with sightseeing, 4x4 excursions, a camel ride across the dunes and a night in a desert camp.
After July 30, the trip took on a dimension nobody could have foreseen when it was designed. A visit to Chefchaouen was scheduled for August 9, a town the Army's own brochure places 100 kilometres from Ceuta. The group was due to move on to Tangier the following day before returning to Madrid.
Troops deployed at the border
Across the border, fellow soldiers were deployed on the ground. The mass crossing on July 30 forced the General Command of Ceuta to mobilise troops to support security forces and deal with the fallout of an influx that overwhelmed the city's ordinary response capacity.
On August 3, the very day the Marrakech trip began, military personnel took part in moving hundreds of migrants found across the city to the Tarajal border crossing.
The call for applications required successful applicants to pay the full cost by bank transfer to the agency, with a payment deadline of June 5. It also set out cancellation terms, ranging from no charge for withdrawals made more than fifteen days in advance to a full refund forfeit for cancellations made less than four days before departure.
Leave restricted for Ceuta troops
The call also expressly left open the possibility of changing plans, stating that any of the trips could undergo partial changes because of unforeseen circumstances or be cancelled entirely for lack of demand or other reasons. In other words, the Army had formal mechanisms available to cancel the trip if events after March had made that advisable.
Pressure on the troops deployed in Ceuta grew to the point that the Defence Ministry restricted leave for personnel of the General Command of Ceuta in August, after calls circulated on social media for a fresh attempt at a mass border crossing on the 15th.
The order required troops to remain available and limited extraordinary leave to exceptional, duly justified cases, while also suspending personal leave days until further notice. The instruction, signed by the head of the General Command, affected several units deployed in the city, including the Regulares Group, the Logistics Unit and the Engineers Regiment. That, the ministry noted, was not a holiday.
