Using migrants to pressurise Spain underlines the Saharan conflict's central position in Palace thinking, Rabat's 'encouragement' last month for a wave of migrants who, freed of Moroccan policing, promptly descended on the Spanish-ruled enclave of Ceuta, blew Saharan sands to a most sensitive gateway to the European Union. Its success in shaking a stick at Madrid after Polisario Front leader Brahim Ghali travelled to Spain (in an Algerian jet on an Algerian diplomatic passport) to be treated for severe coronavirus was underlined, as thousands of troops had to be deployed from the Spanish enclave's garrison.