The vessel 'Allegra' was on 3 November 2011 observed discharging phosphate rock in Tasmania, Australia. The cargo originates from occupied Western Sahara. See video of the operation here.

Settlers from Morocco cultivate lucrative quantities of tomatoes and melons at the King of Morocco's plantation in Dakhla, occupied Western Sahara. Faced with incessant job-cuts, these workers are currently staging a protest in Casablanca. Nipping further protests in the bud, the authorities have promised them their jobs back.

A firm called Teredo Morocco Ltd has got the right to explore for oil offshore Western Sahara in violation of international law. If you know the company, please send us a mail.

The rapporteur of the European Parliament's development committee agrees with the rapporteur of the fisheries committee: Parliament should not accept the one-year extension of the fish deal with Morocco. "The right way to go is not in neglecting international law, principles of environmental sustainability or sound economics", she said.

Sidahmed Lemjiyed, President of the Saharawi Committee for Protection of Natural Resourcs (CSPRON) was detained 25 December 2010 in El Aaiún. Since then, he has been imprisoned without being accused of a crime, and without having been before a court. According to an international group that visited Morocco this week, his health is deteriorating.

The Australian Institute of International Affairs hosted an event in Melbourne on Wednesday 5th October on the issue of Western Sahara under the title: Western Sahara and its Phosphate Rock: is Australia in a Hard Place?

Sydney barrister is calling on three major Australian companies to stop their imports from occupied Western Sahara, saying the firms might be liable to future compensation claims from the people of the territory. ABC, 10 October 2011.

Read also: Australian Lawyer questions legality of phosphate imports

The rapporteur of the Fisheries Committee of the European Parliament recommends that the EU drops its fisheries agreement with Morocco. “A waste of taxpayers' money, ecologically and environmentally unsustainable and no significant macro-economic effect”, he stated. 

"I have no problem in stating, in retrospect, that it might have been a bad idea to take this assignment”, CEO of seismic services firm Spectrum ASA told media today. Now, Irish oil minor San Leon has to find another subcontractor to process the geological data they collect from the occupied territory in violation of international law.

While the European Union wouldn’t dream of importing Palestinian agricultural and fisheries products under the Free Trade Agreement with Israel, it appears to have far less problems with importing similar products from Western Sahara under the Free Trade Agreement with Morocco.

Polish business newspaper erroneously placed Western Sahara within Morocco. Polish Africa group tries to rectify the error.

The Saharawis continue denouncing the plunder of their country. A few dozen dozens of Saharawis now gathered in front of the offices of the Moroccan human rights commission in occupied territory. 

 

San Leon’s seismic surveys will be conducted in the northern parts of occupied Western Sahara from July 2011, in violation of international law. Placements from investor George Soros might have been crucial.

Morocco is continuing its oil programme on the Boujdour onshore block. These cars were filmed as they did geological surveys in the occupied territories.

The Moroccan state owned oil company ONHYM has established new oil blocks in Western Sahara. The illegal programme could double the acreage in the occupied territory.

Email to Longreach Oil and Gas Ltd, sent 8 July 2011.

Today, the European Parliament’s agricultural committee issued its opinion that Parliament should refuse its consent to the conclusion of the agricultural agreement with Morocco. “The issue of the Western Sahara territories, with regard to which Parliament\'s legal services have been asked for an opinion, calls for careful assessment”, states the Committee’s report.

As the Moroccan authorities prohibit Saharawi from leaving the towns in order to prevent them from building protest camps in the desert, these five protesters have started a peaceful sit-in in front of their home on 7 July 2011. They call for the right to benefit from their homeland's abundant natural resources.

Three fishermen associations registered in Dakhla, occupied Western Sahara, say they've not seen any benefits stemming from investments and projects at the local harbour. Ironically, their statement comes only a few days after the EU Member States' split vote approval of the much debated one-year extension of the EU Morocco fish pact – claiming the investments under the agreement are beneficial to the local population.

Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs underlines that the wishes of the Sahrawis must be taken into account upon undertaking business in the territory of Western Sahara.

Another demonstration in the capital of occupied Western Sahara took place yesterday. Moroccan police prevented people from joining the protesters.

2 Swedish students insist that the EU ambassador to Rabat had no reason to claim that "independent institutions" have supported the EU fisheries in Western Sahara, as he claimed in a press conference last year. Their correspondence with the EU delegation to Morocco reveals that the ambassador was only refering to the EU itself.

While the UN hosted peace talks between Morocco and Polisario in the US last week, a large load of illegally excavated Saharawi phosphates was being discharged in Louisiana. The peace talks covered the management of natural resources of occupied Western Sahara. The UN says such trade is in violation of international law, but PotashCorp defends Morocco\'s claims to the territory.

Spanish fish food company Jealsa Rianxeira receives ever more critisicm for its engagement in occupied Western Sahara.

Russian media reports today that an agreement has been signed between Moscow and Rabat for catch of 100.000 tonnes of fish offshore Morocco. Most of the fisheries, however, will not take place in Morocco.

UPDATE - The hunger strike was ended on Saturday 18 June 2011.
Since 12 April, six Saharawi citizens in Guelmim in Southern Morocco have been on hunger strike to condemn the EU’s fisheries in occupied Western Sahara and the involvement of US phosphate importer PCS and Irish oil company San Leon in the plunder of the territory.
 

The most heavily involved foreign firm in occupied Western Sahara, US-Canadian fertiliser company PotashCorp, has published a statement on its trade and on how it interprets the Western Sahara conflict. Read their erroneous text, and WSRW’s comments.

The Lithuanian firm Lifosa refused to answer the question whether they intend to terminate phosphate imports from Western Sahara, and was today kicked out of the UN Global Compact initiative on Corporate Social Responsibility.

There is no unequivocal proof that Western Sahara, let alone its people, has benefitted from the EU-Morocco fisheries partnership agreement (FPA), according to the Irish government.

Last week, shipments of phosphates arrived in the ports of Hobart and Geelong in Australia. The vessel above, Livadia, was seen arriving Tasmania 27 May 2011.

Member of Western Sahara Resource Watch, Elena Pollán, was this week-end forced to leave Western Sahara after harassment from Moroccan police. Pollán was carrying out interviews with Saharawi about the illegal EU fisheries in the territory.

Images from El Aaiun, 23 May 2011.

The Moroccan authorities don't accept criticism of their ongoing plunder of Saharawi natural resources light-heartedly. El-Aaiún-resident Ali Saadouni was earlier this month brutally beaten by the Moroccan police for speaking out on the Saharawi’s poor living conditions in a resource-rich homeland.

The import of phosphate rock to New Zealand from occupied Western Sahara carries on. New shipment coming in next week.

Aicha Dahane travels to Australia to denounce Incitec Pivot\'s import of phosphates from occupied Western Sahara.

Last year, WSRW asked Thai firm Precious Shipping to terminate its repeated shipments of phosphate rock from Western Sahara. While still not responding to the request, the firm did another shipment last month.

UK-Irish oil minors will start seismic surveys in occupied Western Sahara in June 2011.

There is no way for the EU member states to know whether the EU fisheries in Western Sahara is according to the wishes of the people of the territory, as international law prescribes.

A report from the Association of the Bar of the City of New York urges the UN to investigate Morocco's plunder of natural resources in Western Sahara.

During the past week, Saharawi victims of severe human rights violations have taken to the streets of El-Aaiún, demanding more respect for their socio-economic rights. Protesters carried slogans calling attention to the ongoing plunder of Saharawi natural resources, perpetrated by Morocco and complicit foreign interests.

President of Western Sahara says the EU is prolonging the conflict through its illegal fisheries in his country's waters.

"Morocco does not have the right to exploit the area’s resources as if they were its own", states Norwegian Minister for Foreign Affairs, underlining that fisheries in Western Sahara "must be exercised in accordance with the wishes and interests of the population involved".

After two days of talks, the European Commission and Rabat have signed a one-year extension of the EU-Moroccan fisheries agreement on Friday 25 February in Rabat. The original agreement, widely criticized for supporting Morocco’s claim over occupied Western Sahara, was set to expire on 27 February.

A Press Release by the Actionsgruppe Westsahara on their demonstration in front of the European Commission's representation in Berlin, Germany, on 18 February 2011.

Denmark could not stop EU’s fisheries agreement with Morocco, which is earning millions on the occupation of Western Sahara. Information (Denmark), 18 Feb 2011.

The president of the Western Sahara republic urges UN Secretary General Ban ki-moon for assistance to stop the EU in the plundering of Western Sahara. The EU is considering prolonging the fisheries in the occupied territories in violation of central UN principles and a key UN legal opinion.

Continuing EU fisheries in occupied Western Sahara contributes to prolonging the conflict, states 7 parliamentarians in a letter to the Commissioner for Maritime Affairs. They refer to a resolution from the European Parliament urging Morocco to stop the plunder of the territory it occupied in 1975.

Irish Larbour Party parliamentarian, and presidential candidate, Michael Higgins states that the lack of information from the Commisison regarding the EU illegal fisheries is outrageous. "There has been no consultation with the Saharawi people. Prolongation of the current arrangement is a flagrant violation of international law and the founding principles of the European treaties", Higgins state.

"In my opinion, we cannot vote for an agreement that is in violation of international law", Swedish minister of agriculture, Eskil Erlandsson, stated in parliament this afternoon regarding tomorrow\'s vote in the Council of Ministers. More states are expected to follow, in trying to stop the continued illegal and unethical EU fisheries agreement in occupied Western Sahara.

The UN states that Saharawi must consent - but the EU doesn't seem to care. Saharawi in occupied Western Sahara protest the EU's violation of international law in their territory, as the European Commission works to continue the unethical fisheries offshore their coast.

Today the European Commission has sent a recommendation to the European Council for renewing the fisheries in Western Sahara for one year. The Commission does not even mention that the fisheries take place in Western Sahara.

Next Friday, the European Commission will formally ask the EU-governments for a mandate to negotiate a 12-month extension of the EU-Moroccan fisheries agreement (FPA) on current terms. Read: one more year of paying Morocco to fish in non-Moroccan waters.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This is how wide you smile when you contribute to the continued illegal occupation of a country.

"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.

Morocco keeps exploring and marketing its uranium potential in Western Sahara, despite the fact it is in violation of international law.