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"No legitimacy to fishing treaty without Sahrawi's benefit", stated one of the banners when a demonstration took place in occupied Western Sahara yesterday. "Where is our fish, where is our sand, where are our phosphates?", stated another in Arabic (photo above)
The demonstration was organised in front of the offices of the Moroccan ministry of mines, by unemployed Sahrawis, families of Sahrawis who are detained after the protest wave last year, as well as workers of the phosphate mine in Western Sahara.
A large number of uniformed and plain clothed policemen encircled the area where the demonstrators had gathered. The organisers told that the Moroccan police prevented many demonstrators from arriving to the location where the demonstration took place.
The Sahrawis protested against the suppression, unemployment and the EU plunder of their territory.
Parts of Western Sahara were illegally occupied by Morocco in 1975. Spain and France is currently trying to push through a fisheries agreement in the European Union against the wishes of the people, and without trying to find out whether the Sahrawi people benefit from the agreement. The EU fisheries in Western Sahara is considered in violation of international law by the world's leading experts on the issue, such as former Legal Counsel to the UN, as well as the Legal Services of the European Parliament.
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.
