This is a letter some MEPs have received. I copy it here to draw your attention to this problem:

Dear Member of European Parliament,

I am writing to you to draw your attention to the arrest and forcible expulsion of the human rights defender Aminatou Haidar (Western Sahara) by the Moroccan authorities.

Aminatou Haidar was subjected to a long and brutal interrogation, for 24 hours in El Aaiun Airport (Western Sahara/occupied territories), and then expelled to Lanzarote (Spain).  She was stripped of her passport, ID and all her personal documents confiscated by the Moroccan police.

The 2008 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Laureate, Aminatou Haidar, at the airport of Lanzarote (Spain), refused to get out of the plane, and after a long discussion the accomplice Spanish authorities makes her to get out of the plane against her will .and she sill at the Airport ceaselessly   asking the Police to allow her to go back to El Aaiun Western Sahara where she lives with her family and two children Hayat and Mohamed (15-13 years old). Last night 16^th November she has started a hunger strike protest and the police removed her by force out the premise of the airport.

The human rights activist was returning to her homeland from a visit to the U.S.A via Spain.  She had travelled to the U.S. to receive the Civil Courage Prize awarded by the “Train Foundation” for her courageous to defend the rights and liberties of the Saharawi people.

The Moroccan authorities arrested Aminatou Haidar because she refused to say that she is Moroccan, taking into account that the UN and the international community recognises  the status of Western Sahara as the last colony in Africa, and recognises to the Saharawi people their right to self-determination.

This new act of Moroccan escalation of repression and intimidations against the Saharawi people and activists, comes within the framework of the clear position declared by the Moroccan king in his last speech November the 6^th, in which he says that the only option for anyone who is under Moroccan control is “to be Moroccan”.

This expulsion follows a spate of recent arrests and confiscation of the travel documents of several Saharawi activists by Moroccan authorities. Seven Saharawi activists who visited Saharawi refugee camps in Tindouf, Algeria in October currently face charges before a military tribunal.

The arrest and expulsion of Ms. Haidar is directly related to her humanitarian work and defending human rights.

The Moroccan unacceptable attitude ought to be condemned loudly.

Thus we call up on you urgently to intervene in securing the return of the Famous Saharawi human rights defender to her homeland ElAaiun/Western Sahara,  so she can join her children and family, and resume her human right activities without any constraint, Take the necessary measures to guarantee her physical and psychological integrity, Guarantee the protection of her fundamental human rights, as enshrined in several international instruments, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Morocco has ratified, and guarantee that Ms Haidar is able to continue her work as a human rights defender without fear of reprisal.

The alarming human right situation on the Western Sahara requires an urgent action, the recommendation of the European Parliament delegation march suggested that a mechanism of monitoring the human right ought to be found in the territories .here I would very much kindly ask you to put pressure on Morocco for that UN mission to the Western Sahara MINURSO will be abele enlarge its mandate to monitor the violation of human right in Western Sahara.

Highest consideration

Mohamed Sidati,

Minister Counsellor for Europe

Member of the National Board POLISARIO Front