The United States has proposed in a meeting of the UN Security Council on Thursday that the occupied Western Sahara be incorporated into Morocco.
The Sahrawi people have the right to self-determination and independence from colonial rule. This right has been respected in all other cases of decolonisation throughout history.
Friday, 31 October 2025 marks 50 years since Morocco’s military invasion of the Spanish colony of Western Sahara, which halted the decolonisation process. The invasion is one of the most serious violations of international law since World War II, and half of Western Sahara’s population was forced into exile.
International courts have been clear that the territory is not - and has never been - a part of Morocco.
But the United States now proposes that Western Sahara should permanently become part of Morocco. That is the essence of a proposal the U.S. has submitted to the UN Security Council. The proposal is scheduled for a vote on Thursday, 30 October. Among Morocco’s key allies is also France’s president, Emmanuel Macron.
Yesterday, large demonstrations took place in the refugee camps in Algeria. The photo series below was taken by filmmaker Mark McLoughlin.
See also this video from Saharawi Voice (Instagram).
American and Norwegian observers deported from Western Sahara
A US and Norwegian citizen are at this moment deported from occupied Western Sahara by Moroccan police for meeting local human rights defenders, day before UN Security Council vote.
Trump wants to give Western Sahara to Morocco – and Europe is helping him
For the first time in UN history, the Security Council is about to bless an occupation. On 30 October, the Council will vote on a resolution stating that there is only one solution for Western Sahara: becoming part of Morocco. The draft was written by the Trump administration.
New report: Sahrawi students beaten, isolated and denied medical care in Moroccan prisons
They were beaten with batons until they nearly lost consciousness and threatened with rape if they did not confess. This is the testimony of recently released Sahrawi students in a new report following a decade in Moroccan prisons.
