Moroccan settlers

As part of the Western Sahara conflict, the Kingdom of Morocco has sponsored settlement schemes that have enticed thousands of Moroccan citizens to relocate to the Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara. This regulated migration has been in effect since the Green March in 1975, and it was estimated in 2015 that Moroccan settlers accounted for two-thirds of the 500,000 inhabitants of Western Sahara.^[1]

Under international law, the transfer of Moroccan citizens into the occupied territory constitutes a direct violation of Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention (cf. Turkish settlers in Northern Cyprus and Israeli settlers in the Palestinian territories).^[2]

History

Spanish disengagement

Western Sahara came under Spanish rule as a protectorate in 1884, wherein the territory extended from Cape Bojador to Cape Blanc. Spain gradually extended its control over the region over the next 40 years by negotiating with France. Spanish Sahara was formally established in 1958 after two earlier administrative districts, Río de Oro and Saguia el Hamra, were combined.^[3]

Amid pressure from nationalists in Spanish Sahara, Morocco, Mauritania, and Algeria, Spain disengaged from Western Sahara in 1976. The remaining territory was divided between Morocco and Mauritania, frustrating Algerian leaders and prompting them to begin supporting a Sahrawi nationalist group, the Polisario Front. In the late 1970s, the group began conducting guerrilla warfare in Morocco and Mauritania, but Mauritania soon ceded its claim to the territory, leaving Morocco as the only state belligerent.^[3] The war with Morocco caused about half of the Western Sahara's Sahrawi to flee the area, leaving a gap for Moroccan settlers to fill.^[4]

Moroccan settlements and the Western Sahara conflict

Moroccan settlements have played a complex role in the resolution of the Western Sahara conflict.

Government support

The Kingdom of Morocco supports the settlements financially and administratively, with many incentives given to citizens who choose to relocate to Western Sahara. For example, government employees that live in the Western Sahara earn roughly twice the amount that their colleagues in the rest of the Kingdom earn.^[5]

Attitude of the Polisario Front

The Polisario Front disagrees with the presence of settlers in the Western Sahara and sees them as a significant barrier to self-rule. In a 2018 conversation between Brahim Ghali, Secretary-General of the Polisario Front, and Horst Koehler, the United Nations Secretary-General's Personal Envoy to Western Sahara, Ghali noted that Moroccan settlements were a major area of concern. Specifically, the presence of settlers is significantly shifting the demographic makeup of the region, posing a significant roadblock to a resolution.^[6]

For the Polisario Front, Moroccan settlers now constituting the majority of the population of Western Sahara precludes the possibility of an independence referendum. Wary that any independence vote would either force a union with Morocco or continue Moroccan dominance over Western Sahara, few are open to such a referendum without decolonization and the repatriation of settlers to Morocco.^[7]

International response

United Nations

The United Nations has attempted to mediate claims to the Western Sahara, with settlers being a major area of contention. In the early 2000s, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's Personal Envoy to the Western Sahara, James Baker, held multiple meetings with Moroccan and Polisario officials to discuss the future of the Western Sahara. They were ultimately ineffective and inflamed relations. Baker also put forth two peace plans that would introduce a four-year phase of autonomy to the Western Sahara and then put independence to a referendum-style vote. At either point, either the Polisario Front or Morocco denied the plan.^[8]

United States

Responses from other countries regarding settlers have been scarce. Though the United States Department of State, for example, has issued human rights reports for the Western Sahara, they have not made reference to settlers.^[9]

See also

• Western Sahara conflict
• Turkish settlers in Northern Cyprus
• Israeli settlers in the Palestinian territories

References

1. Shefte, Whitney (6 January 2015). "Western Sahara's stranded refugees consider renewal of Morocco conflict". the Guardian.
2. "Mixed Reviews for Morocco as Fourth Committee Hears Petitioners on Western Sahara, Amid Continuing Decolonization Debate | Meetings Coverage and Press Releases".
3. "Western Sahara". Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia. 2018 – via EBSCOhost.
4. Jacob Mundy (2012-06-11). "Moroccan Settlers in Western Sahara: Colonists or Fifth Column?". The Arab World Geographer. 15 (2): 95–126.
5. Mundy, Jacob (June 2006). "Autonomy & Intifadah: New Horizons in Western Saharan Nationalism". Review of African Political Economy. 33 (108): 255–267. doi:10.1080/03056240600842875. hdl:10.1080/03056240600842875. JSTOR 4007163. S2CID 143907619.
6. United Nations Security Council Report of the Secretary-General Situation concerning Western Sahara S/2018/889 3 October 2018. Retrieved 29 March 2019.
7. Lakhal, Malainin; Khalil, Ahmed; San Martin, Pablo (2006). "Moroccan Autonomy for the Western Sahara: A Solution to a Decolonisation Conflict or a Prelude to the Dismantling of a Kingdom?". Review of African Political Economy. 33 (108): 336–341. ISSN 0305-6244. JSTOR 4007170.
8. Mundy, Jacob (June 2006). "Autonomy & Intifadah: New Horizons in Western Saharan Nationalism". Review of African Political Economy. 33 (108): 255–267. doi:10.1080/03056240600842875. hdl:10.1080/03056240600842875. JSTOR 4007163. S2CID 143907619.
9. "The Western Sahara Dispute Drags On after 27 Years in Limbo". freedomhouse.org. 2019-01-09. Retrieved 2019-04-27.

Further reading

• Aallaoui, Ali El (2018). "Western Sahara: Negotiation Over the Last Colony in Africa". SSRN Electronic Journal. doi:10.2139/ssrn.3273702. ISSN 1556-5068.
• Allan, Joanna (22 April 2016). "Natural resources and intifada : oil, phosphates and resistance to colonialism in Western Sahara". The Journal of North African Studies. 21 (4): 645–666. doi:10.1080/13629387.2016.1174586. ISSN 1362-9387.
• Khoury, Rana B. (15 June 2011). "Western Sahara and Palestine: A Comparative Study of Colonialisms, Occupations, and Nationalisms". New Middle Eastern Studies. 1. doi:10.29311/nmes.v1i0.2601. ISSN 2051-0861.
• Isidoros, Konstantina (31 January 2017). "Unveiling the Colonial Gaze: Sahrāwī Women in Nascent Nation-state Formation in the Western Sahara". International Journal of Postcolonial Studies. 19 (4): 487–506. doi:10.1080/1369801X.2016.1277152. ISSN 1369-801X.
• Martín, Juan Carlos Gimeno; Guindo, Miguel G. (2016). "Descolonizando el Sahara occidental: ¿conformarse con la paz?, ¿renunciar a la justicia?" [Decolonizing Western Sahara: settle for peace? renounce justice?]. Sahara Occidental: 40 años después [Western Sahara: 40 years later] (in Spanish). Madrid: Los Libros de la Catarata. pp. 41–54. ISBN 978-84-9097-132-1.
• Martín, Juan Carlos GiMeno (2017). "Western Sahara: Africa's Last Colony" (PDF). Tensões Mundiais, Fortaleza. 13 (25).
• Shelley, Toby (2004). Endgame in the Western Sahara: What Future for Africa's Last Colony. Zed Books. ASIN B09LQB4NYS. ISBN 978-1842773413.