Madrid (Spain), July 13, 2025 (SPS) - Oscar Allende, director of the Spanish news site "El Faradio," called on Saturday to break the wall of silence surrounding human rights violations perpetrated by the Moroccan occupation in Western Sahara and its prevention of foreign delegations from documenting what is happening in the occupied region.
Last Tuesday, Moroccan authorities prevented Allende, along with Spanish journalist Leonor Suárez and Raúl Conde, a member of the NGO "Cantabria for Western Sahara," from entering the Sahrawi territories, where they were on a mission to document the situation in the occupied region.
In a statement to the Algerian News Agency (APS), Allende discussed the Moroccan police's surveillance of journalists, defamation, and imprisonment, along with repeated assaults on them, as well as "standing against any attempts to document what is happening in the region from abroad by expelling foreign observers, which leads to further silence."
The speaker advocated for greater media coverage of the expulsion of foreign observers and journalists, emphasizing the need to amplify the voices of Sahrawi journalists abroad, asserting that "the silence surrounding these violations is the shield of dictatorship, and this is what we must break."
He noted that his news site has covered the expulsion of many international observers, lawyers, journalists, and others, highlighting that "the worst part is the whitewashing of Morocco's image in Spain due to the political and trade relations between the two countries."
He stated that these relations "make many people see only the friendlier side, while the aggressive side, which violates the most basic human rights, remains unknown to many."
Regarding the purpose of his attempt, along with several colleagues, to visit occupied Western Sahara, Allende said: "We sought to contribute to breaking the media blockade, to understand what is happening on the ground, and to document the violations, as well as the obstacles faced by the Sahrawis in the field of human rights."
He added, "We also aimed to conduct interviews and highlight the humanitarian situation, but that was not possible, as we quickly began to suffer from police surveillance, security issues, and difficulties in finding accommodation, culminating in our expulsion, which involved being escorted by official Moroccan vehicles for 700 kilometers. They accompanied us to the gate of Agadir Airport (southern Morocco)."
He warned that the treatment foreign delegations receive in terms of prevention and harassment "cannot be compared to what Sahrawi journalists face daily in terms of surveillance and retaliation for their journalistic work."
In conclusion, the Spanish journalist stressed that the situation in Western Sahara "cannot continue" and that the international community must "enforce the law more rigorously." He also stated that Spain must "fulfill its obligations, not only because the law requires it but also because there is a legacy that remains in the occupied territories, and we should not abandon the Sahrawi people and condemn them to misery."
