News

On Monday, the European Parliament's committee for International Trade decided to delay the ratification-process of the EU-Moroccan agricultural agreement due to legal ambiguities.

Published 08 February 2011
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The proposed EU-Moroccan agricultural agreement lacks clarity on the issue of Western Sahara, according to a newly released legal opinion by the European Parliament’s legal services. The opinion suggests Parliament to examine this ambiguity before giving its consent.
Published 01 February 2011
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The EU ambassador does not know which independent institutions he himself referred to in May last year, in support of the EU fisheries agreement in Western Sahara. Yesterday, 2 Swedish students met with the embassy in Rabat, and got an answer that the EU has so far not been willing to respond to.

Published 01 February 2011

According to Moroccan police, foreign visitors are not allowed to talk with Saharawi. Several foreign groups have been expelled from Western Sahara or Morocco the last weeks after meeting with local people. This student was kicked out few hours after meeting a network of Saharawi ladies whose sons have disappeared, on 29 January 2011.

Published 01 February 2011
Brian Cowen, acting Irish Minister of Foreign Affairs, expects Irish companies to have due regard to the principles of international law and the rights of the people of the territory of Western Sahara. Irish company San Leon is leading the way in the onshore exploration of oil and gas in occupied Western Sahara.
Published 28 January 2011
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The Spanish agrarian organisation COAG is convinced that the impending EU-Moroccan agricultural trade liberalisation agreement could be illegal for implicitly including Western Sahara. COAG has now condemned French company Azura’s presence in the occupied territories.

Published 18 January 2011
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For the third consecutive day, Saharawi fishermen have been protesting in the harbour of Boujdour, demanding the right to fish in their own waters. Since Monday, Moroccan police officers have been preventing the Saharawi from accessing their boats.

Published 12 January 2011
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A Spanish member of WSRW, Elena Pollán, was detained in her hotel in El Aaiún last Saturday, 8 January. Pollán and her two friends were forced to take a bus to Marrakech airport, accompanied by a plain-clothed police officer. Though no expulsion warrant was issued, they were involuntarily put on a flight to Madrid.
Published 11 January 2011
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Yesterday morning, 10 January, the Moroccan authorities forcefully prevented 70 young Saharawi fishermen from entering Boujdour’s harbour and the fish market.
Published 11 January 2011
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This is how wide you smile when you contribute to the continued illegal occupation of a country.

Published 04 January 2011

"We have still time to influence so that the waters offshore Western Sahara are left outside of the agreement", writes columnist Helena Olsson in Finland's largest newspaper, Helsingin Sanomat, on the unethical EU fisheries.

Published 04 January 2011
Phosphate mining 400 meters under the sea could start replacing New Zealand imports of Western Sahara phosphate rock already in 2013.
Published 03 January 2011
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Morocco keeps exploring and marketing its uranium potential in Western Sahara, despite the fact it is in violation of international law.

Published 02 January 2010
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In December 2010, the long term agreement between the Mexican phosphate importer Innophos and the Moroccan phosphate company OCP expired. The trade has been going on for 18 years, and it is not known whether arrangements have been made to continue the cooperation. The firm has not yet responded to questions WSRW sent in October regarding the unethical purchases from the occupied territory.

Published 01 January 2010
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Sidahmed Lemjiyed, President of the Saharawi Committee for Protection of Natural Resources (CSPRON) was arrested on Dec. 25 in El Aaiun, based on arrest orders issued by the General Prosecutor in November 2010. Lemjiyed Sidahmed has been referred to the Military Tribunal.
Published 01 January 2010
The leading importer of phosphates from occupied Western Sahara, US/Canadian firm PCS, has received yet another vessel.
Published 01 January 2010
These documents are collected from Russian webpages linked to government and fisheries news services, documenting the 2010 renewal of the Moroccan-Russian fisheries cooperation.
Published 01 January 2010
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WSRW has this autumn monitored the Russian fishing vessels in Western Sahara. But the Russian government holds no fisheries agreement for those waters.
Published 01 January 2010
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28 high profile personalities in Portuguese society ask its own government to prevent a renewed EU fisheries agreement in the occupied Western Sahara, and to defend international law, as it did with the case of decolonisation of East Timor.
Published 31 December 2010
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The firm Ballance Agri-Nutrients is busy this Christmas plundering the phosphate resources of the Sahrawi people.

Published 30 December 2010