Last week Aminatou Haidar, the 42-year old Sahrawi human rights campaigner, was arrested and expelled by Morocco. She visited the US last month to receive the Civil Courage Award from the Train Foundation and was also awarded the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award. On her return to El Ayoun airport in Western Sahara she was arrested after refusing to declare her nationality as Moroccan on an airport customs clearance form, then had her passport confiscated and was subsequently deported to Lanzarote in the Canary Islands.  Aminatou Haidar is the chairwoman of the Collectif des Défenseurs Sahraouis des Droits de l´Homme – CODESA (Collective of Sahrawi Human Rights Defenders).

Amnesty International have described seven other Sahrawis being held in detention by Morocco after visiting the Sahrawi camps at Tindouf, Algeria run by the Polisaio Front in October as prisoners of conscience.
The seven, Ahmed Alansari, Brahim Dahane, Yahdih Ettarouzi, Saleh Labihi, Dakja Lashgar, Rachid Sghir and Ali Salem Tamek  belong to a number of human rights organizations and other civil society groups including Western Saharan branches of the Moroccan Association of Human Rights (Association Marocaine des Droits Humains, AMDH), theSahrawi Association of Victims of Grave Human Rights Violations Committed by the Moroccan State (Association sahraouie des victimes des graves violations des droits de l’homme commises par l’état du Maroc, ASVDH) and the Collective of Sahrawi Human Rights Defenders (Collectif des défenseurs sahraouis des droits de l’homme, CODESA). Some of the seven have long association with monitoring and reporting on human rights violations in Western Sahara.

Human Rights Watch have condemned the Moroccan government for blocking ‘unauthorised’ visits by foreigners to the homes of Sahrawi campaigners in Western Sahara. HRW document five cases where Spanish journalists and human rights lawyers were told by local police that their visits require prior clearance from the authorities.

Link to Amnesty

Link to HRW