A leaked report has cast doubt on the renewal of a fisheries agreement between the European Union (EU) and Morocco. The agreement, which costs E36.1 million a year, gives EU fishing boats rights to fish in waters off Western Sahara, a territory illegally occupied by Morocco since 1975. According to a confidential 112-page EU report, the agreement has lost money for the EU, with fishing boats landing only about E30m-worth of fish (mainly sardines and anchovies) every year. “The fleet’s contribution... to meeting the needs of the European market is... rather marginal,” the report also noted.
Last year, the European Commission refused to renew the four-year treaty without evidence that it benefits the local Sahrawi population financially. Meanwhile, Venezuela and Cuba are building the first high school in the Sahrawi refugee camps outside the zone of Moroccan control. The school, in the refugee camp Esmara, is scheduled to open in September.
For campaigning news about the Western Sahara campaign: www.wsahara.org.uk