SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, 7 Apr. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The Saharawi Soukaina Ndiaye, president of the Tenerife Migrant Network, criticized this Thursday in the Parliament of the Canary Islands the “boldness” of the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, in reversing his position on the conflict in Western Sahara and has warned him that the Saharawi people “cannot be sold”.
In a speech before the immigration study commission in the Canary Islands, he commented that Spain has a “historic debt” with the Sahara as “administrating power” and cannot leave its citizens “in the hands” of the Moroccan government.
He lamented that Morocco has been given “broadband” in recent years and the situation in the “occupied territories” “is much worse”, with “raids” in neighborhoods against activists, and he wonders if Sánchez would have the same “sympathy and generosity” with Mohammed VI than with Vladimir Putin, given that the Saharawis have been waiting for 46 years for a referendum while being “bombed” by the Moroccan army.
He has also indicated that despite the fact that agreements can be reached, Morocco “will continue blackmailing” with immigration, as was shown in the case of Ceuta, and has made it clear that with the Saharawis “they have it rough” because their desire to see a free Sahara “it’s stronger”.
Ndiaye has confessed that his people feel “protected” by Spaniards and Canarians, but he understands that all the socialist presidents have “betrayed” them, since both Felipe González and Zapatero and now Sánchez “are hand in hand” with Morocco.
“The Sahara is not a bargaining chip or a commodity to negotiate, it is an illegality and an outrage against the Saharawi people”, he stressed, stressing that they will not “die under the Moroccan flag” and will continue to defend their freedom “until there is no no Saharawi”.
Regarding immigration, he stated that “it is a hard drama” with many people who die in the ocean trying to reach the Canary Islands or the Peninsula because “Frontex does not do its job” and other people who have been working in Morocco for many years, where “they do not comply with human rights”, to earn money and be able to pay for the trip, some even from Bangladesh.
In the specific case of the Canary Islands, he has said that “it is not only a border”, but also a place of reception and in this sense he has criticized that when unaccompanied minors turn 18 “they are left on the street and in total abandonment”.
He has lamented that there are “failures” in the asylum system and it seems that “now there are only Ukrainians” demanding international protection.
