Spain defends Polisario chief’s hospital stay amid migrant crisis

Spain’s top diplomat has dismissed suggestions Madrid’s extension of medical treatment to Western Sahara’s independence movement leader that infuriated Rabat was linked to the unprecedented surge in migrants reaching its Ceuta enclave.

Some 6,000 migrants made their way into Spain’s north African enclave on Monday, breaking all records for a single day and spraking a crisis in the tiny territory.

Rabat reacted furiously after it emerged last month that the leader of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, had been allowed into Spain to be treated for Covid-19.

The Algeria-backed Polisario Front has long fought for Western Sahara’s independence from Morocco.

But in an interview late Monday, Spain’s foreign minister defended the move as a humanitarian one.

“It was and is simply a humanitarian question, a humanitarian response to a request for humanitarian aid from a person who was in a very, very fragile health situation,” Arancha Gonzalez Laya told Cadena Ser radio on Monday night.

Moroccan officials had “assured” Madrid that the huge influx was “not the result of the disagreement” with Rabat over the presence of Ghali at a Spanish hospital, she said.

Analysts had warned the row over Ghali could push Rabat to limit its cooperation over illegal migration as well as other issues, as it has in the past.

Faced with the massive number of arrivals, Spain’s interior ministry sent in 200 police, with images on RTVE public television showing them being deployed along the border.

The authorities were also using a stadium in Ceuta to house the migrants before they were sent back, the Spanish government delegation in Ceuta said overnight.