Unemployed Saharawis call for an end to discrimination in fisheries industry.
On 13 January, at 11am local time, Saharawi fishermen in Dakhla staged a peaceful protest outside of the Delegation for Fisheries in Dakhla, occupied Western Sahara. It was the second protest this month, taking place only a few days after the previous demo.
The fishermen repeated that they consider themselves on the losing end of the discriminatory employment practices of the Moroccan government's recruitment agency in their occupied hometown. They also demanded an end be put to the depletion of Western Saharan fish stocks by “lobbying of the Moroccan government", as one protester put it.
The fishermen claim they were hindered by the Moroccan police on their way to the protest site. They say the Moroccan security troops are currently intensifying their presence in certain neighbourhoods of the city, against the backdrop of celebrations commemorating the foundation of the Frente Polisario - the internationally recognised representative of the Saharawi people.
New documentation shows that only 4 out of 75 purse seiners that the Moroccan government have licenced to fish on the pelagic stocks off Dakhla, occupied Western Sahara, are controlled by Saharawis.
Dozens of Saharawi fishermen who took part in the protest last Saturday in the harbour of Dakhla have been summoned by the Moroccan police.
On Saturday, Saharawi fishermen blocked the entrance to the harbour of Dakhla for two hours, in protest of abominable working conditions, discriminatory recruiting practices and overfishing.