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| - Spain stepped up diplomatic pressure on Morocco Tuesday as its prime minister flew into Ceuta, vowing to "restore order" in the North African enclave after a record 6,000 migrants reached its beaches from Morocco, inflaming tensions between Madrid and Rabat. With diplomatic ties already strained between the two nations over a political spat linked to Western Sahara, Spain's top diplomat summoned Morocco's ambassador to express her "displeasure" after thousands of migrants were able to enter the enclave as Moroccan security forces turned a blind eye. "I reminded (the ambassador) that border control has been and must continue to be the joint responsibility of Spain and Morocco," Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya told a news conference. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez flew into Ceuta after the record influx which has overwhelmed the tiny peninsula. "We will restore order in the city and along our borders as quickly as possible," Sanchez vowed before he was also set to visit Melilla, Spain's other coastal enclave which lies some 400 kilometres (250 miles) to the east. By midday, Spain had sent back around half of the migrants, the government said. Most had crossed into Ceuta largely unimpeded by Moroccan security forces on Monday, but by Tuesday morning, Rabat had deployed reinforcements at the Fnideq border crossing who fired tear gas to disperse those eyeing a rare opportunity to slip across, an AFP correspondent reported. Spain's leader said the crisis spread beyond its borders. "This sudden arrival of illegal migrants poses a serious crisis for Spain and for Europe," warned Sanchez, who cancelled a Tuesday trip to Paris to attend an Africa financing summit. Ceuta and Melilla have the European Union's only land borders with Africa, making them popular entry points for people fleeing poverty and war in Africa. EU home affairs commissioner Ylva Johansson urged Morocco to act to halt the "worrying" increase in arrivals, while European Council chief Charles Michel voiced solidarity with Madrid, tweeting "Spain's borders are the European Union's borders". Analysts said it was clear Morocco had turned a blind eye to the human tide surging into Ceuta to put diplomatic pressure on Spain to recognise its sovereignty over Western Sahara. By midday on Tuesday, hundreds more Spanish police and Civil Guard officers had been deployed in Ceuta and Melilla while troops had also been drafted in to guard the frontier. "The situation is much calmer. The Moroccan authorities are blocking their nationals from coming along the beach," a source at the Spanish government delegation in Ceuta told AFP. He said the arrivals had stopped by midday, but live footage from Spain's RTVE public television appeared to show a different reality, with scores of migrants wading through the water. Early Tuesday, another 300 migrants tried to cross into Melilla by scaling a high barrier, with 86 making it through. Before dawn on Tuesday, hundreds more flocked to the border to try their luck, among them Ouarda, a 26-year-old single mother from the nearby town of Tetouan. "I saw on Facebook that it was possible to cross the border, so I took a taxi here with my friend as I can't feed my family anymore," she told AFP. "I'm not scared -- I'll either die or I'll cross." Another was 18-year-old Amal who rushed to the border with his brother and two friends. "Many of our friends managed to get across," he told AFP. "We tried to climb over the mountain but the police blocked us." Videos on social media showed dozens setting off from rocky outcrops, some wearing just beachwear but others in normal clothes. Those who made it either swam or walked at low tide from Moroccan beaches a few kilometres to the south. Some used inflatable swimming rings and rubber dinghies. One man drowned en route, Spanish officials said. The crisis comes to the backdrop of soaring tensions with Rabat over Madrid's decision to provide medical treatment for the leader of the Western Sahara independence mvement who has been seriously ill with Covid-19. Rabat was infuriated when news leaked that Polisario Front leader Brahim Ghali had flown to northern Spain in mid-April and was being treated in hospital. The Polisario Front has long fought for the independence of Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony that is mainly under Moroccan control. The Moroccan authorities have long wanted Spain to acknowledge their authority over Western Sahara, as Washington did in December under former president Donald Trump, and were using the Ghali spat to put pressure on Madrid. In allowing the migrant surge into Ceuta, Morocco had sent a "strong message", Isaias Barrenada, an international relations professor at the Complutense University of Madrid, told AFP. "The message is 'without Morocco's cooperation in the control of migrants, Spain has a problem so Spain should listen to Morocco's demands'," he said. But Spain's foreign minister Laya insisted Rabat had "assured" Madrid there was no connection between the migrant surge and Ghali's presence in Spain. burs-hmw/jv
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