Madrid, 29 March 2025 (SPS) – A Spanish delegation on a mission to observe and monitor the human rights situation in the occupied territories of Western Sahara was expelled on Friday by Moroccan occupation authorities, according to statements made by its members on social media.
The delegation, which included Jesús Maestro (former deputy of the Cortes of Aragon) and Rosa Fernández, both human rights defenders with over 30 years of activism for the Sahrawi people through the association "Um Draiga", as well as journalist Gara Santana Suárez, was prevented from disembarking upon arrival in occupied El Aaiun.
A video posted on social media shows plainclothes men, apparently agents of the occupation authorities, boarding the plane and ordering the Spanish delegation to remain on board without providing any explanation.
The delegation’s primary objective was to assess the human rights situation in the occupied Sahrawi territories and denounce the plundering of Sahrawi natural resources by European companies operating in the region with Morocco’s complicity.
The State Coordination of Solidarity Associations with Western Sahara (CEAS), of which Um Draiga is a member, strongly condemned the expulsion of the Spanish delegation from the occupied Sahrawi territories.
"This aggression is yet another example of the Moroccan regime’s illegal and authoritarian practices, aimed at silencing those who seek to expose the grave human rights violations committed daily in the occupied territories," CEAS stated in a press release.
Emphasizing that this latest expulsion is "not an isolated incident," CEAS recalled that "similar cases have occurred in recent months, revealing Morocco’s systematic strategy to prevent investigations and monitoring of the situation in Western Sahara."
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