Polisario Front Threatens Legal Action Over Spanish Hotel in Disputed Western Sahara

Senator Hotels & Resorts has announced the opening next May of a hotel in Dakhla. Following this announcement, the Polisario Front expressed its firm opposition to this project. In a letter addressed to José María Rossell Recasens, CEO of the Spanish hotel giant, and to which Publico had access, the Sahrawi independence movement asks to reconsider this project "because of the serious implications it entails for the right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination and independence".

Any economic activity in the Sahara must require the prior consent of the Polisario Front, the legitimate representative of the Sahrawi people before the UN and international bodies, the Polisario Front recalled in the letter signed by its delegate in Spain, Abdulah Arabi, reserving the right "to undertake any action it deems appropriate to defend the legitimate right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination and independence".

However, the Polisario Front expressed its willingness to provide any clarification or explanation to the Spanish hotel group, and to evaluate with it the options that would allow it "to combine its economic interests with the rights of the Sahrawi people". The letter recalls that Morocco’s sovereignty over the Sahara is still not recognized by international law, referring to the 2016, 2018 and 2021 rulings of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) on the issue.

"The assimilation of the city of Dakhla to Moroccan territory and, ultimately, the opening of the ’Senator Babilonia Delight Collection’ hotel constitute a violation of the obligations imposed by international law, as it is a non-self-governing territory," the Polisario Front noted, stating that it is not against the economic development of the Sahara, but demanding to be associated with any project, in its capacity as "representative of the people of Western Sahara".