Occupied El Aaiún, 26 August 2025 (SPS) – Reactions continue to condemn the Moroccan occupation's expulsion of international observers from the occupied Sahrawi territories. The latest incident involved the deportation of two human rights activists from the Nonviolence International Organization from the occupied city of El Aaiún. This has sparked renewed Sahrawi demands for urgent intervention to halt these repressive practices and enable international delegations to carry out their duties freely and transparently.
In this context, the Coordination Mechanism - Action Committee of the Occupied City of Dakhla issued a statement condemning the Moroccan occupation authorities' deportation on Sunday of the two human rights activists, American Elaf Hassan Qasim and Portuguese Bianca Afonso Perraci, from occupied El Aaiún.
The statement emphasized that "this cowardly act occurs amidst the fierce and escalating offensive launched by the Moroccan occupation against the Sahrawi people, manifested through daily repression, restrictions on freedoms, and the systematic plundering of the Sahrawi people's wealth. This reflects the occupation's mentality of preventing all free voices from learning about the reality in the occupied territories."
It further noted that the two activists, affiliated with the Nonviolence International Organization based in Washington D.C., USA, were deported immediately after arriving in occupied El Aaiún from the occupied city of Dakhla. They were on a human rights and humanitarian mission aimed at assessing the human rights situation in Western Sahara.
The statement added that the activists had been scheduled to meet with Sahrawi activist and former political prisoner Mahfouda Bamba Lefkir at her home. However, the Moroccan occupation authorities prevented this by raiding their accommodation and forcing them to leave their hotel. They were then coercively transported by taxi to the Moroccan city of Agadir, "in a move that reveals the occupation's policy of systematic cover-up to conceal the crimes and violations committed against Sahrawi civilians."
The Sahrawi organization stressed that "what the two activists experienced is entirely consistent with the suffering of Sahrawi political prisoners, particularly the 'Gdeim Izik Group' and the 'Student Group,' who have been handed unjust sentences, including life imprisonment, in addition to the plight of other Sahrawi civilian prisoners."
The Coordination Mechanism also affirmed that these events "reflect the extent of confusion and fear experienced by the Moroccan regime in the face of the strength of the Sahrawi cause and the resilience of the Sahrawi people." It called on international human rights organizations and UN bodies to intervene urgently to halt these repressive practices and enable international delegations to perform their tasks with full freedom and transparency.
It also demanded the immediate release of all Sahrawi political prisoners, foremost among them the "Gdeim Izik Group," reiterating its pledge to continue confronting the occupation through all peaceful and struggle-based means until freedom and independence are achieved.
Previously, the Collective of Sahrawi Human Rights Defenders (CODESA) had also denounced the Moroccan occupation's expulsion of human rights activists Elaf Hassan Qasim and Bianca Afonso Perraci from the occupied city of El Aaiún. It called on all international human rights organizations to intensify field visits to the occupied territories of Western Sahara to expose the crimes committed by the Moroccan occupation forces.
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