Occupied El Aaiún (Sahrawi Republic), October 30, 2026 (SPS)– Moroccan authorities of occupation deported two international observers, one holding dual U.S.-Norwegian citizenship and the other Norwegian citizenship, yesterday evening, from El Aaiún, the capital of occupied Western Sahara.
This new colonialist violation reflects the continued imposition of a systemic media blockade by Moroccan repressive authorities, aimed at suppressing facts and preventing foreign witnesses from monitoring gross human rights violations in the territory.
The two individuals are 22-year-old student human rights activists Marianne Bugge Stavik and André Christopher Belleteste, who arrived in occupied El Aaiún to assess the human rights situation and hear firsthand testimonies from Sahrawi citizens and activists regarding their reality under occupation.
Upon arrival, the two observers held a meeting at the residence of prominent Sahrawi human rights defender and former political prisoner Sidi Mohamed Daddach. The meeting was attended by human rights activists and family members of Sahrawi political prisoners from the "Gdeim Izik" group, who are serving harsh prison sentences reaching up to life imprisonment. The observers listened to testimonies documenting daily violations and the ongoing suffering endured by the prisoners and their families.
As they returned to their hotel on Thursday around 8:00 PM, their path was blocked by six Moroccan plainclothes agents who informed them that they were "unwelcome" in the territory. They were then forced into a taxi and forcibly escorted north toward the Moroccan city of Agadir, in a journey taking approximately 12 hours’ drive, to prevent them from completing their planned programme, which included additional meetings with Sahrawi human rights defenders.
This latest violation comes as the UN Security Council prepares to vote on a resolution renewing the mandate of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO). This new violation underscores the Moroccan occupying state's insistence on preventing any independent oversight of the deteriorating human rights situation and removing observers, journalists, and rights delegations to conceal the Sahrawi people's rejection of schemes attempting to legitimize the occupation.
The incident is a continuation of the systematic blockade policy enforced by Moroccan authorities of occupation in the occupied territories of Western Sahara for years. Sahrawi and international reports document the denial of entry or deportation of more than 330 foreign observers, including parliamentarians, journalists, lawyers, and international human rights activists of various nationalities, from entering the occupied Sahrawi territories from 2014 to date, in flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and relevant UN instruments.
Furthermore, UN human rights mechanisms, the UN Human Rights Council, the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, and other international organizations have been prevented from visiting the occupied territories or assessing the human rights situation on the ground for decades. (SPS)
090/500/60 (SPS)
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