Morocco Expels Spanish Activists from Western Sahara City, Citing Polisario Links

In a telephone conversation with the EFE agency from Marrakech, one of the activists said that the police had "discovered their presence" in Laâyoune where they had already been for 4 days. "They put us in a taxi heading for the city of Agadir, more than 600 kilometers from Laâyoune," explained María Pérez de Larraya, before heading to Marrakech where they are to take a flight to Spain tomorrow, Thursday.

A member of the Navarre Association of Friends of the Sahara (Asociación Navarra de Amigos del Sáhara), she had been invited by Sahrawi independence journalists, she specified, adding that she will give more details when she returns to Spain.

As EFE recalls, it is quite common for the Moroccan authorities to expel foreigners, including lawyers, activists, or journalists and deputies, whom they consider "pro-separatist". In most cases, they are accused of not having notified the local authorities of their presence on site.