Morocco Expels Spanish Union Official After Meeting Separatists in Western Sahara

David Blanco told EFE by phone that he arrived in Dakhla on Saturday by plane for a four-day visit. After meeting with separatist activists, Moroccan police officers stormed his hotel and ordered him to leave the city immediately.

"The receptionist came to my room and told me that the police were downstairs and that I had been ordered to pack my bags," he recounts, adding that once downstairs, the agents informed him that he was considered "persona non grata" and had him get into a taxi bound for Agadir.

This is not the first time that Morocco has carried out such expulsions. On February 20, the Moroccan authorities blocked at Laâyoune airport three European deputies, including the Spaniard Isa Serra, the Finn Jussi Saramo and the Portuguese Catarina Martins, before forcing them to return to Gran Canaria.

At the end of January, Morocco had also expelled three members of the Basque Parliament who had traveled to Laâyoune to meet with human rights defense associations, as well as environmental and cultural groups.