In June, just weeks before home secretary Yvette Cooper proscribed Palestine Action as a terrorist group, the UK government reversed longstanding policy by recognising Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony that has been under illegal occupation for 50 years.
UK backs agreement maintaining Morocco’s colonial occupation in West Sahara
In a joint communique signed by foreign secretary David Lammy and his Moroccan counterpart, Nasser Bourita, the UK said the 2007 autonomy plan – which gives the indigenous Sahrawis self-governance under Moroccan sovereignty – was “the most credible, viable and pragmatic basis” to end the years-long conflict between Morocco and the Polisario Front, the political-military movement representing the Sahrawi people.
The UK had previously said the status of the territory remains “undetermined” and supported UN-led efforts for a referendum for self-determination for the Sahrawi people.
Sahrawi Minister of Foreign Affairs and African Affairs Mohamed Yeslem Beisat told the Canary during his visit to the UK last week that:
We are shocked to see them supporting an illegal, unilateral, baseless proposal [from] Morocco.
But we know this autonomy plan is a passage brocatoire. It’s an old proposal … They [Morocco] just took it from the fridge, warmed it up in the microwave and tried to resell it again into the world.
Beisat, who was invited to London by Middle East minister Hamish Falconer, insisted that though he was “disappointed” by the UK’s recognition of the plan, he believes these are just “empty words” and that the UK is still committed to a “mutually acceptable political solution”. Falconer did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
A ‘calculated’ move to secure economic opportunities
Still, the sudden shift in UK policy is a victory for Morocco, which Beisat says has been “aggressively lobbying” African and European governments to recognize its autonomy plan.
Since US president Donald Trump first endorsed the plan in 2020, countries including Spain, France, Germany, Kenya and the UK have followed suit, joining over 100 other UN member states that have already done so. Forty countries recognize the Polisario’s state in exile, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) near Tindouf, southwest Algeria, which is also a member of the African Union.
Riccardo Fabiani, the North Africa director at the International Crisis Group says there is a national interest component as well as a diplomatic calculation to the UK’s decision.
He told the Canary via email that:
The UK calculated that by shifting its position in favour of Morocco’s autonomy plan, it could secure economic opportunities in a country that is quickly developing and that is investing considerably in infrastructure, energy etc.
London’s new position has earned Morocco’s goodwill without alienating the Polisario and its main backer, Algeria. This means that right now the UK is one of the few international actors that still has channels of communication with both sides, unlike France or Spain.
Fabiani believes the UK is trying to use its new position to push both sides towards a compromise, but that “it’s not going to be easy”.
Violating the Sahrawis’ right to self-determination
Pro-Sahrawi activists in the UK have their doubts too. Danielle Smith, the founder of UK-based charity Sandblast which advocates for Sahrawi self-determination, says the autonomy plan serves to “legitimise Morocco’s illegal occupation in Western Sahara”.
The UN and various international human rights bodies agree that Morocco’s occupation of Western Sahara is a violation of the Sahrawi right to self-determination and independence, and that all states have an obligation to assist the people of Western Sahara in their struggle for self-determination.
Smith said:
It is hard to have confidence and trust in British diplomacy given its glaring history of providing appeasement to victims of injustice on one hand while carrying on to support groups and governments that perpetuate human rights violations and atrocities [on the other].
She added that she “doubts the sincerity” of the UK’s respect for international law.
For the past six weeks, Smith has hosted a group of Sahrawi refugee teachers and students from the Sahrawi refugee camps in southwest Algeria as part of a cultural exchange programme in the UK. She said their plight “continues to be one of the most invisible stories of the day”.
Promise for a referendum for self-determination: ignored
After years of conflict between Morocco and the Algeria-backed Polisario Front, a UN-brokered ceasefire in 1991 promised a referendum for self-determination for the Sahrawi people. But that referendum never happened, and the ceasefire was broken in mid-November 2020, triggering the return to war that Morocco refuses to acknowledge and to which the world pays little attention.
For decades, Rabat has argued that Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara is the best way to end the 50-year dispute over the former colony. They see the Polisario Front as a threat to their regional influence and security. But in recent years, the narrative has notably shifted focus to one of economic development, trade and investment which, according to former Moroccan diplomat Mohammed Loulichki has:
played a pivotal role in Morocco’s autonomy campaign.
Still, the Polisario Front has secured its own victories when it comes to trade in Western Sahara. In 2024, after a 12-year legal battle, the European Court of Justice ruled that EU-Morocco trade and fisheries agreements cannot be applied in Western Sahara because the territory is “separate and distinct” from Morocco.
Trade in Western Sahara without Sahrawi consent
The ECJ also explicitly stated that no trade agreement could take place in Western Sahara without obtaining consent from the people of the territory – something foreign governments and businesses have continuously sought to avoid.
“British businesses [will] score big on football’s biggest stage,” Lammy said in reference to Morocco’s preparations to co-host the 2030 World Cup alongside Spain and Portugal.
The two countries have also signed cooperation deals on healthcare, innovation, ports, water infrastructure and procurement, and British investments in Western Sahara are “under discussion”. Last month, Morocco announced plans to build a 500-megawatt hyperscale data centre in Dakhla, a coastal city Western Sahara that would reportedly be powered entirely by renewable energy and would rank among the largest data centers on the African continent.
Other plans include a $1.2bn megaproject including a trade port, a fishing port and a shipyard, which is due to be completed in 2028.
Egregious human rights abuses in Western Sahara
Yet, conveniently missing from the sudden political interest in Western Sahara are the egregious human rights abuses Morocco continues to carry out in the territory on a near-daily basis. Journalists are denied entry to Western Sahara, unless it is on invitation from the Moroccan government to push a pro-government narrative of economic development. In 2020, Moroccan authorities prevented at least nine lawyers, activists, politicians, and journalists from accessing the territory.
It is well documented that Sahrawis in occupied Western Sahara are routinely and disproportionately subjected to violence, arrests, and detainment for their activism for self-determination. In a recent high profile case, the activist Sultana Khaya was placed under house arrest for more than 500 days in Morocco where she and her sister and mother were subjected to horrific violence, including sexual assault.
Morocco continues to refuse to allow the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to observe humanitarian conditions in the country for the tenth year running. The UN peacekeeping mission MINURSO, which is tasked with maintaining the ceasefire and carrying out the self-determination referendum, is also one of the only modern UN peacekeeping missions that does not incorporate human rights monitoring into its mandate.
Economic interests trump human rights, but Sahrawi identity is ‘not for sale’
As we’ve seen when it comes to the human rights of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation in Gaza, British economic interests appear to always trump human rights.
But for the hundreds of thousands of Sahrawis who continue to live in limbo, self-determination remains their sole purpose.
Speaking at the UN General Assembly in June, Mouhidine Souvi, a Sahrawi petitioner said:
We are not Moroccan, and we will never be Moroccans. Our identity is not for sale.
Featured image via the Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.