As part of our series of dialogues with Sahrawi jobseekers in occupied Western Sahara, today we host Mr. Yahdhi Al-Sabi, a jobless Sahrawi man. Mr. Al-Sabi holds a license degree in law from Marrakech University. He is a human rights activist who has been subjected to several violations by the Moroccan police.
Question 1: Morocco claims that it provides all the economic conditions for Sahrawi youth. You are a jobless young man. What do you say about that?
My answer to your question is what was recognized by the so-called Economic and Social Council of Morocco (CESE) last year on the economic situation in occupied Western Sahara’s cities, where we have the highest unemployment rate among the youth. Second, all the reports of human rights written by various organizations, delegations, bare witness to the police’s abuse committed daily against the peaceful jobless protesters, and have revealed to the world the strategy of the Moroccan occupier in marginalizing and impoverishing the Saharawi people and deprive them of their wealth which is being stolen daily.
Question 2: Fosbukraa phosphate company is talking about an annual income of more than $ 210 million for the year, which is entirely directed at the development of the Western Sahara region. Is this true?
The Western Sahara region since its occupation by Morocco has not had any development in the sense that every Sahrawi family has at least five jobless persons.
There are families where you find one person in the family get a salary of 200 euros per month which is barely enough for the payment of taxes and the expenses of living. The rate of employment of the Sahrawis is about 3 percent of the total percentage of workers in each administration, the rest is all for Moroccan settlers. This applies to the phosphate sector itself. As for the financial incomes from phosphate, we have a witness from the so-called head of the regional council in Laayoune, Hamdi Weld Rashid, who said to one of the Sahrawi protesting groups in a meeting that Phospockraa company did not provide the council any sort of financial support.
Question 3: The Moroccan government says that the incomes from fishing exported outside the region, whether in Morocco, Europe or other continents is invested for the Sahrawi people?
The fishing field is now witnessing a great conflict between the Moroccan occupier after the fall of his bright slogans, especially the prosecution of his total sovereignty over Western Sahara.
The right of the Saharawi people has been recognized in the European Union by the judgment of the European Court. The fact that the image of the Moroccan occupier is day by day becoming apparent to the world and this situation has led many international companies to withdraw from the occupied territories. This has led Morocco to recruit Sahrawi intellectual mercenaries in order to influence the countries and companies on the Sahrawi people’s approval for the illegal exploitation of Sahrawi natural resources.
As well as to cover up his crimes against the Sahrawi people. This will not be useful in anything because there are many documented pieces of evidence against these violations.
A final word for the Sahrawi jobless protester’s groups.
Frankly I think that some of the Sahrawi jobseekers protesters groups have not yet reached that maturity and the courage to internationalize their case through a mailing correspondence to the UN special rapporteurs or to social, economic and human rights committees in the United Nations. Another thing is that a vast majority of these groups were sometimes affected by the lobbies of the Moroccan occupier exploiting their struggle for electoral purposes. At the same time, these lobbies stand against the jobless youth of Sahara to claim to the world that the Sahrawis are living in the best conditions. This confirms that the unemployed Saharawi groups are not aware of the importance of their decisions on independence. If every jobless Sahrawi person tried to contact all the international bodies relevant to natural resources like European Parliament and international associations interested in these issues, there would have been important results in their battle to take their rights.