Tourists visiting the beaches of the Canary Islands remain blissfully unaware of the troubling history behind the sand that their hotels and beaches are made from.

Beaches and infrastructure projects in the Canary Islands, carried out by local municipalities and companies, contribute to sustaining Morocco’s illegal occupation of Africa’s last colony.

In a new report published today, Western Sahara Resource Watch (WSRW) presents a detailed overview of sand exports from occupied Western Sahara to neighboring countries, with the Canary Islands as the primary destination. 

Download the report Stolen Beaches here. 

The scale of the trade of sand from occupied Western Sahara is significant: between 2020 and 2024, WSRW documented the export of approximately 914,000 tonnes of sand from the territory, transported aboard 239 separate shipments, with the majority destined for the Canary Islands. The most recent large-scale artificial beaches were constructed between 2016 and 2019, receiving only minor sand additions recorded in 2022. The rest, near the totality of the trade to the Canary Islands, relate to the construction industry. 

Some shipments were sent to Cape Verde. This report documents how a government building in Praia is built with sand from the occupied territory. 

The report is the result of extensive research on the Canaries, and on some occasions following trucks from the ports where the sand was received to the final destination, both on the Canaries and on Cape Verde. 

In some instances, the companies involved in the trade have received EU regional subsidies.

The Saharawi people have consistently voiced their opposition to this trade. WSRW urges all companies involved in this trade to immediately cease all purchases and shipments of Western Sahara sand until a just resolution to the conflict is reached.

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