The EU will pay Morocco to fish offshore Western Sahara - a territory which is under Moroccan occupation. Former UN Legal Counsel calls the EU's misuse of his assessment to defend fisheries in Western Sahara "preposterous", according to TIME magazine.
Kosmos Energy's supply vessel Geo Service 1 was observed yesterday in occupied Western Sahara.
A quartet of Danish municipalities have demanded from controversial salt importer Danske Vejsalt that no Western Sahara road salt is sold to them.
Two of the vessels used by Kosmos Energy for its final exploration programme were last week observed in Dakhla, occupied Western Sahara.
The Swedish company Wisby Tankers AB is leading in a controversial trade: supplying occupied Western Sahara with petroleum products. New WSRW report today.
At the Spanish government owned harbour of Las Palmas today, Geo Service 1 is bunkering supplies for the illegal Moroccan oil studies offshore occupied Western Sahara. The studies take place not too far away from Spanish waters.
The director of a handicap institution in Western Sahara was attacked by police as he went out to the street with this poster.
WSRW launches today, for the first time, a complete report listing all the clients, volumes, values and shipments relating to Morocco's exports of phosphate rock from occupied territory.
The New Zealand does not wish to clarify its trade relations with occupied Western Sahara, nor to explain what it has done to seek the consent of the people of the territory.
A subsidary of the Chinese national oil company CNPC this month started a new study offshore occupied Western Sahara on behalf of Kosmos Energy. "Severely undermining the UN peace efforts for the occupied territory", stated WSRW, condemning the operation.
Pictures taken in Boujdour harbour, occupied Western Sahara, demonstrate that vulnerable shark species are still being caught by the Moroccan fleet in the territory - in spite of international rules and regulations calling for their protection.
Yesterday evening, dozens of Saharawis gathered in Zaragoza, Spain, to protest against Kosmos Energy - the American oil company that has announced it will commence to drill for oil in occupied Western Sahara later this year.
"Dear chairman of Kosmos Energy. Today I tried to film a friend holding a banner objecting to your company’s activities in my occupied country, Western Sahara. The Moroccan police responded by hitting me. Here you see how my eye looked like afterwards. How should we protest against your presence in our country?", asked 18 year old Elfayda Khayya from Boujdour in a letter to the chairman of Kosmos today.
Saharawis demonstrated 26 February against Kosmos Energy's oil plans in occupied Western Sahara. Find high resolution images here.
The people of Western Sahara continue to speak out against US oil firm Kosmos Energy's plans to drill in their occupied homeland in October 2014.
An example of doing the wrong thing the right way: Swiss supermarket chain Migros still imports from occupied Western Sahara, but is at least honest about it to its customers.
The US company Kosmos Energy is going to drill in Western Sahara for the first time since the Moroccan occupation. In six months time, it might be too late to stop the company.
A law proposed by the European Commission on responsible sourcing of minerals has been watered down to apply only to imports of processed and unprocessed tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold. Accordingly, it will not include phosphate rock – occupied Western Sahara's white gold that Morocco is profiteering on.
French energy firm Greensolver has agreed to cooperate on Morocco’s solar and wind projects. WSRW has asked them to clarify whether their work will be confined to Morocco proper, or will also cross the border into occupied Western Sahara.
US oil firm Kosmos Energy plans to start exploration drilling in occupied Western Sahara in October or November this year, writes Upstream Online today.
Several big European investment banks have indicated that they will not finance renewable energy projects in occupied Western Sahara. As a result, Morocco is forced to look for other, less ethically inspired funders.
The French oil multinational confirms having renewed for 12 months its licence offshore "the Sahara region". The company keeps following the terminology of the occupying power of Morocco - their partner.
The EU Commission and Morocco have had a third round of talks to agree on a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement. Such an agreement aims at integrating Morocco’s economy into the EU single market – and, if failing to exclude it, also the illegitimate economy of occupied Western Sahara.
Yet another mineral appears to be illegally exploited by Morocco in occupied Western Sahara: quartz.
One of China's giant state-owned fishing firms, Shanghai Fisheries General Corp, is looking to become a major presence in "Moroccan waters".
The Moroccan government has opened up for another oil block further offshore the territory it holds under occupation.
The choice of the EU to enter into a deal with Morocco for the plundering of the natural resources of occupied Western Sahara cause heavy reactions from the people of the territory.
Footage of this protest yesterday in El Aaiun was taken two hours after the European Parliament consented to the EU-Morocco fisheries protocol, which allows for EU fishing in occupied Western Sahara. The people of Western Sahara have not been asked for their approval.
Saharawi social media are boiling over of videos and images of the demonstration yesterday against the EU plans to partner with Morocco to exploit the fish resources of the occupied territory. We have gathered some of it.
EU plans to pay Morocco to fish offshore occupied Western Sahara. Saharawis are mobilising everywhere to prevent the scandal: in the refugee camps, in occupied territories and on social media.
Several Saharawis were injured by Moroccan police in a demonstration against the EU's plans to fish in occupied Western Sahara, Saturday evening. European Parliament will on Tuesday vote on an illegal fisheries agreement with Morocco, covering the occupied territory. The local people of Western Sahara are frustrated, not having given its consent as the UN and international law require.
The aspects of international law that was of concern to the European Parliament back in 2011 have not been answered to in the new proposed fisheries agreement, state 21 jurists.
In a critical letter dated 1 December 2013, the president of the Pan-African Parliament calls on the European Parliament's president, Mr. Martin Schulz, to vote against fisheries agreement with Morocco offshore the coast of the AU member state, Western Sahara.
The Saharawi Natural Resources Watch (SNRW) has called on all European Parliamentarians, to reject the new EU-Morocco fishing agreement, which will be voted in December in the European Parliament so as to “honor Europe and its peoples”.
An increasingly large fleet of foreign vessels work offshore Western Sahara. This shocking series of new images show how the fisheries are managed in the waters that Morocco occupies.
When the vessels come in with too much fish to El Aaiun harbour, the surplus is trown away at a waste dump nearby. New and fresh images show tonnes of fish dumped onshore.
On Sunday 17 November, dozens of Saharawis took to the streets of El Aaiun to protest against the involvement of Total, Siemens and the EU in the illegal exploitation of their occupied country's natural resources.
The Swiss supermarket chain Coop in October started labelling their tomatoes from "Western Sahara".
Saharawi student asked Morocan state phosphate company how her people benefits from the plunder. OCP now tries to silence the stunt, by preventing it from being aired on Youtube.
YEPP, the youth section of the EU parliament's conservative platform EPP, has asked the EU to not enter into deals with Morocco that also covers natural resources from the annexed Western Sahara. WSRW was just made aware of this text, originally adopted in YEPP congress in May.
The European Parliament's new legal opinion states that Morocco has never claimed an Exclusive Economic Zone over the waters off Western Sahara. Read the full text of the opinion here.
The EU Member States did not come to a decision on the proposed EU-Morocco Fisheries Protocol today. The vote will be postponed a few days.
The Tasmanian based fertilizer producer Impact has stopped its imports from Western Sahara.
An impact assessment ordered by the EU Commission on the effects of the envisioned EU-Morocco DCFTA confirms that Western Sahara is part of the deal's scope. But the people with the sovereign rights to the land, the Saharawis, will not even be heard as a stakeholder to the process.
Agrium Inc, a Canadian agro-business, is expecting its first shipment of phosphate rock from occupied Western Sahara by the end of the month. The matter has attracted media attention in Canada, stating that "it could be the first import of conflict minerals coming directly into Canada since the apartheid era in South Africa".
In its statement to the United Nations’ Special Political and Decolonization Committee (Fourth Committee), Western Sahara Resource Watch drew attention to companies trading in phosphate rock from occupied Western Sahara and Groupe Total's unethical seabed oil exploration in the adjacent waters.
The EU-Commission’s newly proposed and controversial Fisheries Partnership Agreement (FPA) with Morocco has failed to gain support from the Danish Government and a broad majority in the Danish Parliament.
A reading of the newly public, proposed EU-Morocco fisheries protocol reveals that the Commission has failed in its efforts to take into account an important demand from the European Parliament and Council: A clause on human rights.
Morocco’s tomato export season starts today. But some of the ‘Moroccan’ tomatoes you’ll soon find in your shop have been grown illegally in a territory under military occupation. Have you spotted dirty tomatoes? Help us to identify them in your local store!
The US/Canadian company PotashCorp and Australian company Incitec Pivot have been kicked out of the Swedish government´s pension funds due to imports from occupied Western Sahara.
