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SPAIN deployed troops to patrol the border of its north African enclave Ceuta today after thousands of migrants arrived there from neighbouring Morocco.
As many as 6,000 Moroccans, including about 1,500 children, swam to the coastal territory over the past two days, Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said.
One person was said to have died in an attempted crossing. Most of the arrivals had been taken to a local football stadium from which they will be sent back to Morocco, while those thought to be minors were put in the care of a charity.
The north African nation has been accused of politicising the humanitarian crisis after Spain allowed the leader of the Polisario Front, which Morocco is fighting in Western Sahara, into the country for hospital treatment.
Diplomatic tensions escalated after Brahim Ghali arrived in Spain last month under a false name, and Rabat slammed authorities for failing to inform them.
But Spanish Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya said that Mr Ghali was accepted into the country on humanitarian grounds after he contracted Covid-19.