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"People live in a horrible situation because of the Australian companies that come to Western Sahara to steal our natural resources", Saharawi Malak Amidane stated in Australian national TV.

Published 09 May 2012
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A group of unemployed Saharawi fishermen is said to have chained themselves to a foreign owned trawler in the harbour of Dakhla, protesting the plunder of their country.

Published 02 May 2012
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The EU Member States have decided to back the European Commission’s suggestion to negotiate a ‘Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement’ with Morocco. The development could have further consequences for trade with Western Sahara, warns WSRW.

Published 26 April 2012
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Last Friday, Morocco announced its willingness to engage in a new fisheries agreement with the European Union. "The talks must respect international law, and should be immediately halted until the Saharawi have given its consent", stated WSRW.

Published 25 April 2012
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Responsible Investor - Siemens, the German industrial giant, is facing scrutiny from environmental, social and governance (ESG) research house GES Investment Services over a wind farm project in the disputed Western Sahara.

Published 18 April 2012
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Nick Clegg, UK Deputy Prime Minister, faces embarrassment after it was disclosed that his wife represents a firm that has been accused of trampling on the human rights of ‘Africa’s last colony’. A ‘substantial’ part of lawyer Miriam Clegg’s work, for which she is paid up to £500,000 a year, is understood to come from Moroccan mining giant OCP. The company is at the centre of international controversy over the treatment of the Sahrawi nomadic tribesmen of the Sahara.
Published 15 April 2012
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The Dutch trading company Nidera will take the issue of Western Sahara “into consideration” if confronted with another need to import to the Latin American country.

Published 08 April 2012
No export credit will be given to Danish companies for projects in Western Sahara, according to the Danish Minister for Trade and Investment.
Published 08 April 2012
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The US oil company Anadarko (ex-Kerr-McGee) said they have no role in the development of the Kosmos Energy's block offshore Western Sahara.

Published 08 April 2012
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Moroccan workers of the state-owned phosphate company, Office Chérifien des Phosphates (OCP), benefit from housing programmes. Their Saharawi colleagues say they don’t.
Published 05 April 2012
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Next month, Morocco’s human rights track record will be reviewed by the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. Western Sahara Resource Watch asks the international community to raise the Saharawi people's rights.
Published 02 April 2012
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The Moroccan state-owned oil company ONHYM continues to promote the uranium potential of occupied Western Sahara. WSRW believes that the Romanian geophysical research company Prospectiuni is involved in the ground work.

Published 21 March 2012

Siemens’s African division in Denmark has signed a contract for delivery of wind turbines to Morocco-occupied Western Sahara. The indigenous population has not been consulted, as prescribed by the UN. Danwatch, 4 March 2012.

Published 05 March 2012
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In June 2011, WSRW - together with other organisations - issued a first request to the European Commission, soliciting the independent evaluation report of the EU-Morocco Fisheries Partnership Agreement become part of the public domain. The Commission has now agreed to release the report. Read it here.
Published 05 March 2012
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The Irish company San Leon Energy has published a map on its webpages showing how they carried out oil search on occupied land.
Published 22 February 2012
Today, the European Parliament backed a revision of the Moroccan Free Trade Agreement, allowing for further liberalisation of Moroccan agricultural and fisheries products. The agreement fails to specify that it does not apply to Western Sahara.
Published 16 February 2012
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Siemens Energy has initiated a dangerous path for its internationalization strategy. Beginning of February, the company secured its first wind turbine orders on land occupied by Morocco.

Read also: Danwatch: Siemens’s Danish Division Signs Contract to Occupied Land

Published 15 February 2012
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The new WSRW report ‘Conflict Tomatoes’, launched today, reveals massive growth in the Moroccan agriculture industry in occupied Western Sahara and its trade to the EU.

Published 14 February 2012
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French farmer and parliamentarian, José Bové states in an interview with Moroccan newspaper L'économiste that he will work hard to stop the agreement, which he calls "a disaster for the agriculture".
Published 02 February 2012
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The world’s biggest trawler and fish factory vessel have been operating in Western Sahara’s waters.

Published 30 January 2012
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The EU agriculture agreement must be stopped, according to Spanish farmers’ association.
Published 30 January 2012
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UN special envoy to Western Sahara states how the natural resources are currently the main topic of peace talks between Morocco and Polisario.
Published 29 January 2012

A new EU trade agreement that is set to boost the personal fortune of King Mohamed VI of Morocco is facing opposition because it promotes the exploitation of disputed territory of the Western Sahara. Source: The Telegraph, 29 Jan 2012.

Published 29 January 2012
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The Moroccan state electricity company has launched a tender for the construction of 5 wind farms. Two of those farms will be located in occupied Western Sahara.

Published 27 January 2012
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The Irish oil firm stated today that it had completed its seismic services in "Morocco". The release fails to mention that the exploration was in fact done in occupied Western Sahara. The UN states such search to be in violation of international law.
Published 24 January 2012
The leader of the Saharawi committee for protection of natural resources has spent 14 months in jail, as trial against him was postponed on January 13. Demonstrations and police violence erupt in Western Sahara following the decision.
Published 23 January 2012
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The US lobby firm K&L Gates has for a year and a half been lobbying the issue of Western Sahara on behalf of a US-Mexican company that imports phosphates from the occupied territory.

Published 23 January 2012
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On 5 January, the European Commission issued a request to the EU Member States, seeking their support to conduct negotiations with Morocco in order to achieve a new, long-term fisheries protocol. The fishing zones covered by the envisioned accord also include Western Saharan waters.
Published 17 January 2012
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During the days before Christmas, a vessel owned by the Danish shipping company Lauritzen set off from Western Sahara, occupied by Morocco. According to the UN, the Moroccan phosphate exploitation is illegal. By DanWatch, 30 Dec 2011.

Published 30 December 2011
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FMC Corporation states that they have stopped importing phosphates from Western Sahara to Spain and that they should never have been kicked out of the Norwegian government's pension fund for lack of ethics.

Published 23 December 2011
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The Norwegian fertilizer firm Yara states their position remains unchanged, and that they do not purchase phosphates from Western Sahara. Yara's new agreement with Moroccan phosphate firm specifically excludes purchases from Western Sahara, according to the company.
Published 19 December 2011
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This week, the EU pulled its fleet out of Western Sahara, a territory largely occupied by Morocco. The Russian industrial trawlers should follow the European example, Western Sahara Resource Watch (WSRW) demanded today. Press release, WSRW, 16 Dec 2011.

See images of the Russian fleet in Western Sahara

Published 16 December 2011
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The list of vessels active under the now repealed EU-Morocco fisheries agreement has just been released. Download the list here.
Published 16 December 2011

The EU fisheries in Western Sahara have today been voted down in the European Parliament. Reports made for the European Commission have shown that the EU fisheries in Western Sahara are a complete waste of EU taxpayers’ money, and contribute to destruction of marine life offshore Western Sahara. EU fleet must now return from Western Sahara.

Published 14 December 2011
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EU Fisheries Commissioner, Maria Damanaki, previously suggested EU fisheries agreement with Morocco should not apply to Western Sahara. Now, she repeats the message.
Published 14 December 2011
The tomato sector on the Canary Islands received with satisfaction the news that the European Parliament has turned down their fisheries agreement with Morocco and hopes that the agriculture agreement, “will follow the same steps and will be turned down once it is presented before the Plenary”. Europapress, 14 December 2011.
Published 14 December 2011
Email sent from Norwegian Support Commtitee for Western Sahara to Tripoliven.
Published 13 December 2011
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"Be part of the solution, not part of the problem", Saharawi human rights activist Ali Salem Tamek urged the European Parliament, criticizing the illegal EU plunder of the fisheries resources offshore occupied Western Sahara.
Published 08 December 2011
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Further EU fisheries in occupied Western Sahara "will make the EU and its member states further liable for a violation of international law", stated former principal legal advisor of the Swedish government, in a seminar in the European Parliament on 7 December 2011.
Published 08 December 2011
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Covington & Burling, the US lobby law firm that lobbies for the Moroccan phosphate trade from occupied territory of Western Sahara travelled all the way to Oslo to explain to an investor how the Saharawis supposedly benefit from the trade. Still, the firm refuse to talk to Saharawis or civil society about the industry.

Published 08 December 2011
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The US-Mexican firm Innophos has imported phosphate rock from occupied Western Sahara for decades. As a new vessel is this week about to arrive Mexico from occupied territory, WSRW requests again about the trade.
Published 08 December 2011
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The Norwegian government today announced it has sold 256 million Euros of shares in the two US-Canadian firms PCS and FMC due to their imports from Western Sahara.

Published 06 December 2011
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A cross-party seminar, entitled “The EU and Western Sahara: trading fish, ignoring rights?” will be held in the European Parliament, Wednesday 7 December.
Published 01 December 2011
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British oil firm Longreach Oil & Gas yesterday announced that they are currently undertaking seismic studies in occupied Western Sahara. The studies are carried out in violation of international law.

Published 22 November 2011
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Today, the European Parliament's Development and Budget Committee both adopted an opinion calling on Parliament to reject the EU-Morocco fisheries agreement.
Published 07 November 2011

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.

Published 06 November 2011
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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.

Published 06 November 2011
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...At 28 kilometres east of town of Boujdour.
Published 06 November 2011
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Former UN Special Representative to Western Sahara, Francesco Bastagli, laments the European Parliament's lack of will to ask for a legal opinion on the EU fisheries agreement with Morocco.
Published 06 November 2011
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The shark population in occupied Western Saharan waters is under threat by Moroccan and European fishing. That is one of the many disturbing conclusions of the independent post-evaluation report on the EU's fish deal with Morocco.
Published 03 November 2011