The Bulgarian fertiliser producer Agropolychim is in two days expecting a vessel with phosphates from occupied Western Sahara. The vessel could contain around 7.000 tonnes of phosphates. "Agropolychim must stop such imports and return the vessel to where it came from", demands Javier García Lachica, international coordinator of Western Sahara Resource Watch.
Read also: Letter from WSRW to Agropolychim, sent 7th of October 2008.
Update: The vessel has arrived Varna
Representatives of the Australian Western Sahara Association protested at the fertiliser company Incitec Pivot's Extraordinary General Assembly. See photos here of former democrat Senator, Lyn Allison, asking questions at the assembly.
"There's no such country called Western Sahara," Incitec Pivot said to Australian Associated Press today. The statement follows intervention by former Australian senator in the company's general assembly, protesting the trade.
Read also press release: Australian Superphosphate not so super
A Western Saharan diplomat has condemned New Zealand’s purchases of the territory’s fertilisers from Morocco.
Written by Spanish Jesús Madre Casorrán, formerly employed in the mine.
What role does human rights play in the European Neighbourhood Policy? A thesis by Linde Lindqvist Gustavsson at Lund University, Sweden (2007), suggests that human rights issues might fall short when in dispute with Europe\'s self interest. The author compares the cases of Morocco and Turkey.
And who will receive 3,7 tonnes of frozen fish?
The Turkish shipping company Yasa Shipping is doing it again.
A Hong Kong company is linked to Morocco\'s brutal exploitation of Western Sahara. South China Morning Post, 10 August 2008.
A report published earlier this year on ONHYM's homepages reveals that Morocco is looking for iron in the southern parts of occupied Western Sahara. The report suggests that iron could be found in the territory.
Moroccan weekly newspaper Aujourd'hui le Maroc speculates that the Danish clarification on Western Sahara policy is due to energy cooperation with Algeria. A Moroccan government appointed institution demands boycott of Danish businesses in entire Morocco.
Statement made by the Fertiliser Industry Federation of Australia (FIFA) regarding Western Sahara phosphate imports, 2008.
Copenhagen (DanWatch) - Denmark is joining an increasing number of governments with official policies against trade in non-renewable resources from Western Sahara. The Danish position echoes the non-trade policies of fellow Scandinavian governments Sweden and Norway. Danwatch, 17 July 2008.
When representatives of the New Zealand government visited Morocco in January, Western Sahara Resource Watch sent 5 questions to the New Zealand government regarding how the government views trade with occupied Western Sahara. 5 months later, we are still waiting for an answer.
The details behind the energy project in occupied Western Sahara are public. Check them out here.
If the Western Sahara waters are considered high seas, why does the EU spend European taxpayers' money on paying Morocco to fish there? A group of MEPs this week asked a series of questions in the European Parliament.
The EU is about to grant a so-called ‘advanced status’ for Morocco . The move will be made now under the French presidency. “No one seems to mind that Morocco is an illegal occupying power violating the most fundamental human rights”, said WSRW international coordinator.
The Spanish Boluda Group is looking to Dakhla and El Aaiun in occupied Western Sahara.
Moroccan national authorities wishes to build electricity infrastructure in Dakhla, occupied Western Sahara.
"It is surprising that mainly Bergen-owned Gearbulk sails for the occupying power Morocco". Read here editorial in one of Norway's biggest newspapers, Bergens Tidende, 29th of June 2008.
This photo, taken in Port of Lyttleton, New Zealand on June 20th, shows the vessel Pacific Victory offloading phosphates from occupied Western Sahara.
Read also: Another Hong Kong vessel involved in plundering.
"EU - and Denmark - can not on the one hand support the UN\'s criticism on Marocco\'s illegal occupation of Western Sahara and simultanously, on the other hand, make a fisheries agreement with Marocco that totally ignores Western Sahara's rights to their own resources" states member of European Parliament\'s Development Committee, Socialist People’s Party's Margrete Auken.
See photographs of the Gearbulk chartered vessel Simge Aksoy discharging phosphates from occupied Western Sahara in Port of Tauranga, New 23rd of June 2008.
Built to keep the Sahrawi from their own land, the berm that bisects Western Sahara is a potent symbol of Morocco's determination to hold on to Africa's last colony in the face of long-standing - but weak - international pressure. Ivan Broadhead reports. South China Morning Post, 11th of May, 2008.
In May, the Hong Kong based company Jinhui Shipping regretted having carried out phosphate shipments from Western Shara, and said they would never do it again. Here is an other Hong Kong company caught red-handed.
Irish Member of European Parliament, Kathy Sinnott, demands that the occupation of Western Sahara must end and that the Morocco-EU fisheries agreement be reviewed before the EU gives any so-called 'Advanced Status' to Morocco.
Western Saharan activists are targeting Australia\'s reliance on their homeland\'s richest natural resource. The region and its phosphate reserves were illegally annexed by neighbouring Morocco in 1975 and activists have travelled to Australia to raise awareness about the continuing occupation. See 7:30 report on Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 9 June 2008 here.
PRESS RELEASE: 29 parliamentarians from UK, Norway and New Zealand this morning sent a letter to the shipping company Gearbulk, urging the company to stop their phosphate shipments from occupied Western Sahara.
Sahrawis in Norway are asking Bergen-owned Gearbulk shipping company to stop trading with Western Sahara. They believe such trade maintains the brutal occupation.
3 stowaways -probably Moroccan- are now in police custody in Norway after arrving in port of Horten, Norway on 3rd of June. They had hidden in a vessel with fish meal from El Aaiun in occupied Western Sahara, and were discovered as the vessel discharged its cargo in Latvia.
People from Greenpeace Wednesday afternoon prevented the fishing vessel Nordic IV to leave the harbour in Fiskebäck, Gothenburg, Sweden. Two activists have chained themselves to the vessel's anchoring poles. Gothenburg Post, 11 June 2008
Read more about Gearbulk's involvement in Western Sahara, and the vessel Simge Aksoy here. As of June 2008, the vessel can have transported phosphates from Western Sahara for more than 200,000 million US dollars.
A third international shipping company has bowed into pressure to quit its assignments in ports in occupied Western Sahara. The Hong Kong-based shipping company Jinhui Shipping thus follows Norway\'s two shipping companies Arnesen Shipbrokers and R-Bulk, which have stopped shipping out phosphates from the territory. More are expected to follow. Afrol News, 5 june 2008.
The third “Norwegian” shipping company in half a year says it will not longer visit ports in occupied Western Sahara. Jinhui Shipping, registered on Oslo Stock Exchange, says to South China Morning Post that it will not contract any more business in the country.
Last Friday, the Norwegian company R-Bulk said they will do their utmost to prevent further shipments from Western Sahara. Japan-Sahara Association has now sent a letter to the Japanese shipping company that rent their vessels.
The Norwegian shipping company R-Bulk apologizes that one of their vessels has transported phosphates from Western Sahara, and say they will do their utmost to prevent it from happening again. The company is praised for its good corporate social responsibility.
April this year, a vessel belonging to the Norwegian ship owner company R-Bulk, transported 15.000 tonnes of phosphate from occupied Western Sahara to Colombia. One of Norway's biggest trade unions, Industry and Energy, as well as the Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara and Western Sahara Resource Watch today protests the shipment. The phosphate industry in the occupied country takes place in violation of international law.
This time, the vessel is Greek. Arriving Northport on May 30th 2008.
"For now, and unlike its stance on East Timor, New Zealand prefers to cut deals with the occupying power that has long been denying the right of Africa’s last colony to full self determination under the UN Charter." Read article by Scoop journalist Gordon Campbell on the New Zealand participation in the Western Sahara resource plundering.
The European Liberal Youth demands the termination of the controversial EU fisheries agreement with Morocco that lets European vessels fish in occupied Western Sahara. Read statement from the Liberal Youth's annual Lymec congress, Barcelona 1-4th May 2008.
Kamal Fadel, Front Polisario's representative to Australia and New Zealand, has been interviewed on Adelaide Radio regarding the Moroccan fishing and phosphate industry in Western Sahara.
Following the revelations in New Zealand press that the fishing company Sealord is involved in marketing fish from occupied Western Sahara, the Maori Party now reacts. Sealord is half Maori owned. \"We encourage Maori shareholders to raise the issue with Sealord\'s directors and encourage them to review their investment decision accordingly\", Maori Party says.
A New Zealand company is involved in dealing fish from occupied Western Sahara. Hear story broadcasted on Radio New Zealand, May 8th 2008.
The Norwegian insurance company, Skuld, keeps insuring ships carrying controversial cargo. After the case of the ship carrying weapons to Zimbabwe, it has now been discovered that Skuld has ensured a ship carrying phosphate from occupied Western Sahara.
New Zealand, a country which already is a main ally to Morocco in buying the phosphates from the occupied Western Sahara, now also proves to be involved in the distribution of the territory’s fish resources.
"Kosmos believes it has made the right bet as to which party will prevail", a presentation about the company stated.
A Turkey owned vessel is now transporting phosphates from occupied Western Sahara.
More than 300 people demonstrated in the Spanish city of Huelva, in protest of the company FMC Foret's import of phosphates from Western Sahara. Carrying banners such as "Western Sahara is not for sale", the protesters demanded an immediate stop of the imports.
The Norwegian NGO Western Sahara Resources Watch (WSRW) has written to the chief executive of the Rand Merchant Bank to ask that RMB refuse to bankroll the Irish company Island Oil & Gas which recently acquired a block in Western Sahara from Morocco's Office National des Hydrocarbures et des Mines (ONHYM). Africa Energy Intelligence, N° 46102/04/2008
"The next mouthful of food you take after you read this may have an awful aftertaste. That's not necessarily because there\'s anything wrong with your food, but because of how it gets to your plate." Opinion in The Australian Financial Review, by Polisario's Australia representative, Mr. Kamal Fadel, 25 March 2008
Press release: WSRW welcomes the next round of peace talks between Morocco and Polisario, and urges the parties to discuss the current plundering of the occupied Western Sahara.
United Arab Emirates investing in tourism in occupied Western Sahara, according to Maghreb Confidential.
Western Sahara’s government in exile accuses the shipping company J. Lauritzen of contributing to theft of natural resources from the occupied parts of the country.
Jinhui Shipping said Wednesday that it will take into consideration the analysis of Norwegian authorities regarding avoiding trade with phosphates from Western Sahara.
An international delegation of trade union representatives were this week detained in occupied Western Sahara when visiting former Saharawi phosphate workers.
See videos of the Australian mascot protesting against the phosphate trade. The camel was stopped by the police.
Swedish prosecuting authorities starts investigating own companies involved in fishing in occupied Western Sahara.
Jinhui, the Oslo Stock Exchange-registered dry bulk shipping company, will tomorrow unload its last tons of controversial phosphate in New Zealand. The phosphate originates from occupied Western Sahara and has been shipped out of the country despite advice to the contrary from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Norwatch has got photos and video footage of the unloading.