Western Sahara: ACAPS denounces Morocco’s expulsion of Spanish human rights delegation

The Catalan Association of Friends of the Sahrawi People (ACAPS) has strongly condemned the expulsion by the Moroccan occupation authorities of a Spanish human rights monitoring mission from the occupied Sahrawi territories, denouncing a systematic violation of the Sahrawi people’s internationally recognized fundamental rights.

“The ACAPS strongly condemns the actions of the Moroccan authorities,” the association said in a statement, emphasizing that this move falls within the framework of a “systematic repression policy” and “an information blackout imposed on the Sahrawi population living under occupation.” Moroccan authorities expelled last Tuesday members of a Spanish human rights monitoring mission, after preventing them from disembarking upon landing in al-Aaiun airport in the occupied Sahrawi territories.

The ACAPS noted that this expulsion is “not an isolated case,” underlining that in recent years the “Moroccan occupation authorities have systematically blocked the entry of journalists, European deputies, parliamentarians, human rights defenders and many people in solidarity with the Sahrawi issue.” “These practices undermine the fundamental rights to information, freedom of expression and mobilization, and are part of a strategy aimed to marginalize the international community, leading to the most serious violations of the Sahrawi’s rights,” the association said.

In this regard, ACAPS affirmed that the military occupation of Western Sahara is “accompanied by flagrant violations of human rights, including arbitrary detention, torture, forced disappearances, trials without due process, persecution of Sahrawi activists and the ongoing repression of dissent and civil society.” “The systematic refusal of access of international observers is part of this dynamic of control and impunity,” the association said.

Reaffirming its support to the Sahrawi people, ACAPS calls for “the recognition of the Sahrawi people’s inalienable right to self-determination, as enshrined in the UN resolutions, which represents a cornerstone of international law, as well as “the end of military and administrative occupation of Western Sahara.”