The spokesperson for the Spanish United Left in the European Parliament, Marina Albiol, asked the European Commission to give a detailed account of all the funds allocated to the EU’s migration policies in Morocco to know whether they are being used to finance Morocco’s illegal wall in Western Sahara. Ms Albiol requested the EU Commission to clarify whether part of the 200 million Euro that Brussels gives each year to Morocco is being used to finance the illegal 2,720 km wall through which the Moroccan authorities divide the liberated and occupied territories of Western Sahara.

The Spanish MEP, in a parliamentary question, explained that since 2013, Morocco has received an amount of 200 million Euro, following an immigration agreement signed with the European Union. However, it has never been clarified whether this money was used exclusively to finance the Moroccan police and army to monitor border crossings with Ceuta and Melila, or whether Morocco was using part of the funds to finance the wall that separates the occupied Sahrawi territory from the free zones where there are several minefields, fences, bunkers and over 100,000 Moroccan soldiers.

The spokesperson for the United Left has also indicated that the policy of outsourcing the borders of the European Union requires the direct collaboration of a number of authoritarian governments whose practices are contrary to human rights and which are being fed by the EU. As a result, several states such as Morocco have become the key border police for the European Union that in exchange turns a blind eye to their dirty work.

Albiol further noted that the EU authorities are politically and economically supportive of the Moroccan regime, which is an authoritarian and corrupt monarchy that militarily occupies the last territory in Africa that is pending decolonization. She pointed out that the EU is financing an occupation army without requiring any kind of guarantee at a time when the Sahrawi natural resources continue to be plundered by European companies, which makes us all responsible for the perpetuation of the occupation of Western Sahara since 1975 without the planned self-determination referendum being held.

The MEP believes that we cannot afford to continue to violate the human rights of the Saharawi people and to repress any type of social or political movement in their territory with European resources. She concluded that the Commission is under an obligation to ensure that no single penny of the European Community budget ends up in the wall of shame, which is illegal in accordance with international law and represents Moroccan regime’s contempt for human rights.