Morocco Maintains 'Excessive Control' on Western Sahara: UN

The United Nations released a report on Monday where they addressed the ''excessive control'' of Morocco maintains over the right to freedom of speech, peaceful assembly and association in the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR). 

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The details will be discussed this month at the United Nations Security Council. 

The report notes that from Oct. 2018 until today, at least 15 people were denied access to the SADR territory, including human rights defenders, researchers, lawyers and representatives of international non-governmental organizations. 

According to the statements of the personal envoy of the secretary general for the Western Sahara, Horst Köhler, there will be a third roundtable to discuss an acceptable political solution.

In a recent statement to Prensa Latina, the Saharawi ambassador in Cuba, Malainine Etkana, said that the U.N.-led informal talks on Western Sahara appeared difficult due to the "obstacles and intransigence" of the Moroccan occupier.

Morocco, which annexed the territory after Spain withdrew in 1975, considers Western Sahara an integral part of the kingdom and never accepted an independence referendum. Due to the situation, ten of thousands of indigenous Sahrawi people have been displaced to western Algeria's Tindouf province. 

According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), more than 170,000 Saharawis live in the Tindouf camps. UNHCR says refugees have access to just over half of the alotted 20 liters of water per day and Oxfam says nutritional-related illnesses like anemia, diabetes, and stunted growth are widespread. Education and healthcare are chronically underfunded.