The vessel 'Alycia' arrived on Tuesday 7 August 2012 at Risdon dock in Hobart, ready to discharge its controversial cargo of phosphate from occupied Western Sahara for the local fertilizer producer Impact Fertilisers.
The Tasmanian fertiliser company Impact has for a number of years purchased phosphate rock from occupied Western Sahara. The purchases contribute to uphold the occupation of the territory. It comes labelled as import from 'Morocco' although it really comes from Western Sahara. Morocco illegally and brutally occupied Western Sahara in 1975.
The phosphate rock is used to make superphosphate fertiliser used mainly to improve pasture, but sometimes for crops.
The Maltese flagged vessel (IMO number 958336) loaded the cargo in occupied territory on 18 June 2012.
It is owned by a Greek shipping company. The image above shows the vessel docked at the harbour in Risdon, Tasmania, on 7 August 2012.
The Australian Western Sahara Association protests the purchase by Australian companies of phosphate coming from Western Sahara which is sold by the occupying power, Morocco, without consulting the indigenous Saharawi people, without their consent, and giving them no benefit.
WSRW has on several occasions called on Impact to halt its unethical purchases.
In October-November 2010 tens of thousands of Saharawis held a protest camp at Gdeim Izik, near the occupied capital, El Aaiun. They complained that they were being treated as second class citizens in their own country, while Morocco exploited their natural resources for its profit.
EU-Morocco Statement: autonomy without self-determination, law without lawfulness
A joint statement that came out of last week’s EU-Morocco Association Council asks readers to believe in a fiction: that an undefined autonomy plan imposed by an occupying power can satisfy the right to self-determination, and that respect for international law can coexist with the systematic ignoring of the EU’s own highest court.
Greenland Yes, Western Sahara No? The EU’s self-determination test
As the European Union rightly rallies behind Greenlanders’ right to decide their own future in the face of external pressure, a test of the EU’s real commitment to self-determination is quietly unfolding in Brussels.
The CJEU Court Cases
Keeping track of the many legal proceedings relating to Western Sahara is not easy. This page offers an overview of the cases concerning the territory that have been before the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).
New report: Certified occupation
International certification standards embellish Morocco’s controversial trade with fisheries and agricultural products in occupied Western Sahara, new report documents.