Europe’s latest migration emergency is unfolding in Ceuta. There is insufficient evidence to describe the latest events in Ceuta as an act of state-directed instrumentalised migration. This wider disruption explains why migration can provide such a powerful lever for malign actors. It shares an operational architecture with Russia’s growing use of ‘disposable agents’ to conduct sabotage and disruption: state direction or enablement at a distance, reliance on civilian or criminal intermediaries and the deliberate preservation of ambiguity. Instrumentalised migration and sabotage by so-called ‘disposable agents’ are materially different methods.