Now in its 11th year, the festival known as the 'Cannes of the desert' aims to reassure refugees exiled from Western Sahara that they have not been forgotten, says Stefan Simanowitz As the great and the good of the worlds film industry prepared to descend on Cannes last week, a very different film festival was coming to a climax deep in the Sahara desert. Far from the red-carpeted Mediterranean opulence...
Rights activists accuse EU of allowing plunder of resources by occupying power It has been described as the conflict the Arab spring forgot, the last colony in Africa and a human rights scandal. Now British holidaymakers are being urged to respond to the situation in Western Sahara by boycotting its occupier, Morocco, as a destination. A leading human rights activist from Western Sahara, Brahmin Dahane,...
Up to 25 migrants remain on top of fences hours after police thwart efforts to cross border from Morocco Spanish and Moroccan police have thwarted a fresh attempt by dozens of African migrants to try to scale border fences and enter the Spanish enclave of Melilla. Some 25 migrants remained on top of the fences hours after the attempted crossing began at 9am local time (0700 GMT) on Thursday while Spanish...
Right-wing leader of anti-Islam PVV party tells supporters he would ensure there were "fewer Moroccans" in the Netherlands Outspoken Dutch far-right politician Geert Wilders faced an unprecedented storm of protest on Thursday after he told supporters he would ensure there were "fewer Moroccans" in the country. Hundreds filed complaints with the police, and an MP from his anti-Islam PVV party left...
Nearly 300 people arrested and at least 28 injured after hundreds of migrants climb over fences at border with Morocco About 500 people forced their way into Spain's north African enclave of Melilla on Tuesday, Spanish officials said, the largest number to storm the border in almost a decade as increasing naval patrols discourage entry by sea. Spain has two enclaves in Morocco, Ceuta and Melilla,...
s last remaining colony, and no other country in the world recognises Morocco's sovereignty. When Spanish colonial forces quit the area in 1975, the Moroccans moved in from the north and the Mauritanians from the south. Mauritania soon pulled its forces out again but Morocco stayed, launching successive waves of immigration into the territory that have turned the Saharawi people into a minority...
African and Syrian migrants gravitate to the Morocco-Melilla border. Once they have found a chance to cross most risk the perilous boat journey to gain access to mainland Europe ...
s death. "In fact I don't think there is any school in the country that would go." The assistant coroner for south London, Selena Lynch, returned a finding of misadventure. The inquest in Bromley, south-east London, heard that Samuel collapsed on 17 July 2012 while trekking in the foothills of the High Atlas mountains in temperatures of 39C. A local guide was asked to get an ambulance but more than...
t like to shop, then shrines are the selling point in Rabat's quieter twin, Salé Since the French moved their capital to Rabat during the protectorate, twin sister Salé on the opposite bank of Bou Regreg river has been in a state of decline. Once a bustling souk peopled by artisans and craftsmen, it has merchandise, if traditionally made, from Fes, Marrakesh or Essouira. If shopping is not the main...
We chart the routes of, and reasons for, the barriers which are once again dividing populations Mark Rice-Oxley Andrew Mason Daan Louter Matthias Stolz ...
s pay is lower than men's and in the private sector women's pay does not exceed that of men at any level, according to the survey from Akava. The average salary for a woman is 85% that of a man. Scotland: yes vote on independence would risk jobs, claims minister International development secretary Justine Greening said she would be forced to review her department's operations north of the border where...
s decision to reintroduce razor-sharp barbed wire to the border fence that divides the enclave of Melilla from Morocco in north Africa has been condemned by human rights activists as inhumane. The controversial barbed wire, which was erected this week, was first introduced in 2005 but had mostly been removed from the top of the fence after causing serious injuries to migrants as they tried to cross...
s few independent journalists prepared to appear in court this week on charges of aiding and abetting terrorism. Ali Anouzla, the editor of the Arabic news website Lakome , faces up to 20 years in prison if found guilty, in what Amnesty International described as a "worrying setback for freedom of expression". He was arrested last month after posting an article on the terrorist threat in Morocco which...
s Oriental province . Only the donkeys are left to convey the vital fuel, and prices have soared. The smugglers claim that the Algerian forces even shoot at the animals, two of which were allegedly blown up recently. There is also talk of ditches being dug, "six to eight metres deep", on the other side of the border. The cabinet assembled in Algiers last month for a meeting attended by President Abdelaziz...
d been used to action movies, spy movies – cop movies, even – being one long ridiculous set piece; a man with biceps the size of Belgium driving a 16-wheeler into a drug lord's submarine, climbing out of the cabin and, while chomping on jazz-era cigarette holder, declaiming: "Looks like I gave you Das Boot." Or something. In the 00s I hadn't seen much to suggest that things had changed: Pierce Brosnan...
s expansionist policy towards French Morocco The young hotspurs of General Franco's regime are eager, it appears, to exploit the present misfortunes of France and they are talking loudly about Spain's "manifest destiny" of expansion in Morocco. Not that they are exactly wishing for war. What they are hoping for, waiting for, is that their powerful friends of the Axis will first carry out the job of...
s arrest said the video, which was attributed to al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), "contained a clear call and direct incitement to perpetrate acts of terrorism in Morocco." But Anouzla did not post the video - called "Morocco, kingdom of corruption and despotism" - nor link to it. Instead, his article contained a link to a blog post about the video that had previously appeared on the website...
rights, not to undermine them Paul Mason writes about illegal immigration into Spain – based on a report he presented for BBC Newsnight – under the headline: "The EU is ignoring the human rights abuses behind Morocco's razor wire" (2 September). This is not correct. The allocation of EU funds to Morocco (roughly €140m) is primarily designed to support social and democratic reforms in the country....
t look like France." He was foiled by what his team have described as a technical issue after his capsule lifted off in heavy fog in Caribou, Maine, in the US and made its way over the Canadian border and across the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. He then reported a "quiet sky … travelling at over 50mph in my little yellow rowboat". But after joking about not having arrived at one of his possible European...
s now in Tangier. Amadou, from Cameroon, had tried to scale the border fence into the Spanish enclave of Melilla . "The Moroccan cops beat us with their batons," he says. He was taken across the border with Algeria, near the city of Oujda 75 miles (120km) away, and dumped there with 35 others. Now back in Morocco, he lives rough, in a forest, reliant on the local mosque for food. Gathering testimony...