Stockholm (Sweden), 2 November 2026 (SPS) – Sahrawi human rights defender and President of the Sahrawi Body Against the Moroccan Occupation (ISACOM), Aminatou Haidar, affirmed that the European Union and several Western countries are complicit in Morocco’s human rights violations and plunder of Western Sahara’s natural resources through political and economic partnerships that help entrench the occupation and strengthen its repressive policies.
In an interview with the Swedish organisation Article 2, Haidar explained that Western cooperation with Morocco reinforces its economic and political capabilities at the expense of the rights of the Sahrawi people. She highlighted the stark contrast between the suffering of Sahrawi refugees, who depend on dwindling humanitarian assistance, and the continued exploitation of the resources of their occupied homeland for the benefit of the occupying state and its partners.
Haidar criticised Morocco’s so-called autonomy plan, describing it as an attempt to legitimise the occupation and circumvent United Nations resolutions. She stressed that any settlement that does not guarantee the Sahrawi people's right to self-determination remains unacceptable.
Regarding the situation in the occupied territories, Haidar denounced the continued repression and siege, the banning of peaceful gatherings and demonstrations, and the targeting of Sahrawi human rights defenders and journalists. She also pointed to the restrictions imposed on foreign observers, parliamentarians and other international visitors seeking to enter the territory, as part of efforts to conceal violations and shield them from international scrutiny.
She also recalled her personal experience of enforced disappearance and detention for four years, followed by seven months in prison, stressing that her release did not put an end to the harassment, surveillance and restrictions to which she continues to be subjected.
Haidar called on the international community to assume its responsibilities towards Western Sahara as a decolonisation issue, urging it to work towards ending the plunder of the territory's natural resources and terminating partnerships that reinforce the Moroccan occupation, thereby creating conditions for a just solution that guarantees the Sahrawi people's right to self-determination.
She further emphasised the need to break the media siege imposed on the occupied territories and intensify international and human rights efforts to expose Moroccan violations and keep the Sahrawi question firmly on the international agenda.
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