Moroccans expelled from Algeria in 1975 make an appeal to King Mohammed VI

50 years later, the Moroccans who were victims of the forced expulsion from Algeria in 1975 are demanding justice. In a letter addressed to King Mohammed VI, their association is renewing their demands for rehabilitation, the revelation of the fate of the disappeared, and compensation for the families who lost everything "overnight". It implores the sovereign to take up this humanitarian file concerning thousands of Moroccans expelled from Algeria in 1975. It asks him to give instructions to officially defend the case of the victims of the "Black March", so that it is placed on the national and international agenda as part of the royal diplomatic agenda.

The association has also asked King Mohammed VI to instruct the Moroccan legislative power and government to open an official debate on the file, and to publish an official reference document condemning the acts and crimes committed by the Algerian state in 1975, so that it can serve as a basis to plead and defend the cause, with follow-up and support of the file before international human rights institutions, bodies and forums. It has also requested the mobilization of diplomatic or legal mechanisms in order to ask the Algerian state to recognize this crime, and to work on revealing the fate of the persons who disappeared by force, as an essential condition for any comprehensive and lasting reconciliation between the two peoples and for the construction of a common fraternal future, as well as the achievement of justice and reparation for the victims, by rehabilitating their dignity, restoring the rights and property that were looted or compensating them materially, and repairing their damages.

The association also pleads for the preservation and documentation of the collective human and historical memory, and the integration of the file of the Moroccan victims of the forced collective expulsion from Algeria in 1975 into the educational programs and the official national memory of the Kingdom, as a symbol of loyalty and sacrifice, as well as the designation of a national day to commemorate the anniversary of the forced expulsion.

To recall, the forced expulsion took place on the morning of Eid al-Adha in 1975. While the Muslim world was celebrating the Feast of Sacrifice, nearly 45,000 Moroccan families were unceremoniously expelled from Algeria. Moroccan citizens, legally settled sometimes for generations, found themselves on the streets overnight, forced to hastily leave the country that had become theirs. Among them were mixed families, former combatants of the Algerian War of Independence, all thrown onto the roads in difficult conditions. For the association of victims, this wave of expulsions is a "severe vindictive reaction" to the resounding success of the Green March in November 1975, in which 350,000 Moroccans participated and thanks to which Morocco recovered its southern provinces without bloodshed.