It is not clear at this point which of these vessels were fishing in Western Sahara's waters, but they are among those listed. On Wednesday, the European Parliament voted down the fish deal with Morocco over Western Sahara.
According to the European Commission's external evaluation of the fish accord with Morocco, 74% of the EU's vessels were fishing in Saharawi waters. Furthermore, the report stated that the agreement was the worst of all ongoing bilateral agreements in terms of costs and benefits, and contributed to the destruction of marine life.
The European Parliament’s legal service considered the agreement to be in violation of international law, since Western Sahara is not part of Morocco, and the people of the territory had never approved of nor benefitted from the fisheries.
The document containing the names, registration numbers, flags and other info on the vessels active under the agreement was published by fishsubsidy.org, a project coordinated by the UK based organisation EU Transparency.
The EU considers to pay Morocco to fish in occupied Western Sahara. An EU-Morocco Fisheries Agreement from 2013 would be both politically controversial and in violation of international law.
The international Fish Elsewhere! campaign demands the EU to avoid such unethical operations, and go fishing somewhere else. No fishing in Western Sahara should take place until the conflict is solved.
