In early November, the Moroccan government deported 25 European solidarity activists (21 Spaniards and four Norwegians) from Laayoune in Western Sahara, which has been illegally occupied by Morocco since 1975.
The solidarity visit was timed to mark the second anniversary of a Moroccan assault on Gadaym Izik, a massive Sahrawi tent city that sprang up as a protest against the occupation and the conditions of life it has created (PN 2528-2529). Gadaym Izik, in November 2010, was later described by Noam Chomsky as the beginning of the Arab Spring.
There are 23 Gadaym Izik protesters still in Moroccan prisons, detained without trial.
On 13 November, a Moroccan court upheld prison sentences issued against two Sahrawi human rights activists for their alleged involvement in a riot in in Dakhla in September 2011. Abdelaziz Brai received three years and Anwar El-Sadat Lohmaid was released because he had already served his one-year sentence.
Solidarity activists have been pressing the European Union not to renew its fisheries agreement with Morocco, which has no benefit for the people of Western Sahara, breaking international law.