Quito, 17 March 2025 (SPS) - The Latin American and Caribbean Platform of Solidarity with the Sahrawi People (PLACSO) and other social and human rights organizations in the region have "strongly" condemned the expulsion of a delegation of Spanish jurists from Western Sahara by the Moroccan occupation authorities.
The delegation from the International Association of Jurists for Western Sahara (AIJUWS) was "prevented from disembarking the plane that transported them from Las Palmas to occupied El Aaiun by Moroccan plainclothes agents, who made no statement and intimidated the lawyers to prevent them from setting foot on Sahrawi soil," PLACSO lamented in a statement released on Sunday.
The delegation, which included lawyers Dolores Travieso Darias and Flora Moreno Ramos, as well as expert Silvestre Suarez Fernandez, was set to investigate the human rights situation in the occupied territories of Western Sahara. They also planned to meet with the families of political prisoners, engage in dialogue with women's organizations, listen to social groups, and gather information from Sahrawi human rights organizations, including the Sahrawi Instance Against Moroccan Occupation (ISACOM) and the Sahrawi Association of Victims of Grave Human Rights Violations Committed by the Moroccan State (ASVDH).
PLACSO emphasized that "this is not the first time that members of Moroccan intelligence and security services have prevented an international delegation of this nature from carrying out its mission in accordance with international human rights norms and standards."
"In October 2021, lawyers Inés Miranda Navarro and Flora Marrero Ramos, as well as doctor Raabub Mohamed Lamin Mehdi, were violently expelled from El aaiun," the same source recalled.
The Latin American and Caribbean Platform also cited a report by the Association for the Protection of Sahrawi Prisoners in Moroccan Prisons and the French Association of Friendship and Solidarity with African Peoples, which stated that "Moroccan occupation authorities have expelled over 300 human rights activists, European parliamentarians, observers, and foreign journalists over the past decade."
The report specifically mentioned the recent expulsion by Morocco of four Norwegian activists from occupied Sahrawi cities, aiming to silence voices denouncing the grave, continuous, and systematic human rights violations against defenseless Sahrawi civilians.
In this context, PLACSO expressed "its unwavering support for AIJUWS, particularly the members of the delegation expelled on Saturday."
It also urged "the highest authorities of the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union, and Cooperation to issue a statement regarding this opaque and human rights-violating state practice" by the Moroccan occupation authorities.
Furthermore, the platform once again called on "the Human Rights Council and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit the Sahrawi territories occupied by the Kingdom of Morocco, in accordance with their mandate and international obligations."
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