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Sidati alerts EU to serious human rights situation in occupied Western Sahara

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Brussels, March 31, 2018 (SPS) - Sahrawi Minister for Europe Mohamed Sidati on Thursday has alerted, once again, the European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission, Federica Mogherini, to the serious situation of Sahrawi human rights activists in the occupied Western Sahara.
"We reiterate the alert we launched on 15 March 2018 in a letter to Mogherini," Sidati told APS.
In this regard, the Sahrawi minister said that he wanted to draw attention on "the serious situation of Sahrawi human rights activists."
In his letter, Sidati said that about ten human rights activists have been on an unlimited hunger strike, since 9 March, to demand the respect for their human rights by the Moroccan occupying forces and their transfer to a prison in Western Sahara near their families, from whom they are separated by hundreds of kilometres.
"Scattered in different Moroccan prisons, those Sahrawi prisoners are dying slowly due to negligence, indifference and ill-treatment by their jailers," stressed Sidati, adding that "their health condition is deteriorating day by day."
The Sahrawi minister regretted the attitude of the European Commission, which has not yet responded to the alert, while "it hastens to clinch with the Moroccan partner agreements that illegally include Western Sahara,"
"In the face of this human tragedy, the EU officials should intervene with Morocco before it's too late," he added. (SPS)
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