Ryanair announces plans to fly tourists into occupied country against government in exile’s wishes

Ryanair, the budget airline headquartered in Swords, has announced two new routes, connecting Madrid and Lanzarote to Dakhla, in Western Sahara.

But Western Sahara’s government in exile says the Moroccan government and the airline shouldn’t be the ones making such decisions.

“As an occupying power, Morocco has no right whatsoever to deal, in any way or form, with third parties concerning Western Sahara,” said Seddiki Nafaa, representative of the Polisario Front in Ireland.

“Ryanair’s plan to launch new direct routes connecting Dajla (Dakhla) in Occupied Western Sahara to Europe not only backs Morocco’s claims of sovereignty over Western Sahara but is also a direct contribution to the financing of the Moroccan illegal occupation of the Territory,” Nafaa said by email on Monday.

Not only that, but since the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled in 2018 that the EU-Morocco aviation agreement doesn’t apply to Western Sahara, there is a regulatory vacuum, says Hugh Lovatt, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR).

Although Lovatt said he’s not an aviation expert, he said his view was that this regulatory vacuum “could have real consequences when it comes to the safety of their operations, the licensing of their crews and the maintenance of their aircraft”.

“This could impact the rights of EU consumers such as insurances and compensation of delayed flights,” he said.

A spokesperson for Ryanair said its “operations comply with all applicable aviation regulations”. And forwarded a press release saying “We are delighted to announce that we are bringing Europe’s lowest fares to Dakhla, our newest airport in Morocco”.

The Moroccan Embassy in Dublin has not responded to queries sent Monday about the Polisario Front’s objections to the new Ryanair flights.

From Spanish Sahara to Western Sahara

The territory where Dakhla is located was once a Spanish colony, but Spain left it in 1975, in a deal with Morocco (to the north) and Mauritania (to the south).

• Dakhla Airport   مطار الداخلة

This kicked off a long war in which the local Sahrawi nationalists’ Polisario Front fought both Morocco and Mauritania.

Within a few years, Mauritania withdrew and signed a peace treaty. Morocco kept fighting until 1991, when it and the Polisario Front signed a ceasefire.

These days, most of coastal Western Sahara is under Moroccan occupation, including the small city of Dakhla.

The Polisario Front controls an inland sliver of Western Sahara which neighbours Mauritania and Algeria, a country to which large numbers of Sahrawi people fled to as refugees during the war.

There’s a 2,700km long wall or berm separating the Moroccan-controlled part of Western Sahara from the Polisario Front-controlled part, to help keep Sahrawi fighters out of the coastal region.

The UN classes Western Sahara as a “non-self-governing territory”, and has sent envoy after envoy to try to negotiate a resolution to the stand-off.

Meanwhile, Morocco has used the threat of allowing “irregular migration” through its territory into Europe as leverage to push the EU into recognising Western Sahara as part of Morocco, says Lovatt, of the ECFR.

“Morocco has a well known history of using migration to extort concessions from the EU in relation to Western Sahara,” Lovatt says.

Riccardo Fabiani, North Africa project director at the International Crisis Group, said similar. “Everyone in Europe is aware that if you don’t play by the rules on Western Sahara with Morocco, the Moroccans will retaliate,” he says.

Sign-off

Neither the Moroccan Embassy in Dublin, nor a spokesperson for the European Commission has responded to queries about this sent Monday.

However, in 2018, the EU made the aviation agreement with Morocco – and the CJEU ruled that this did not include Western Sahara.

In 2019, the EU made trade agreements on agriculture and fishing with Morocco that included Western Sahara. And the CJEU ruled against these last month.

These treaties, “to which the people of Western Sahara did not consent, were concluded in breach of the principles of self determination”, it found.

Meanwhile, the Moroccan military has been using drones to bomb vehicles and kill people in the Polisario Front-controlled part of Western Sahara, according to the UN.

And enforcing a regime of repression and censorship within the part of Western Sahara that it controls, according to Mark McLoughlin, a documentary-maker based in Dingle who visited the country, and later set up Western Sahara Action Ireland.

While staying at a hotel in the largest city there, El Aaiún, “there was a guy sitting outside my room 24/7, I was searched every time I left the hotel, and I was followed wherever I went”, McLoughlin said. “The place was swarming with police.”

The Moroccan Embassy in Dublin has not responded to queries about criticisms of its government’s human rights record in Western Sahara.

In any case, it is in this context that Ryanair has set up flights from Madrid and Lanzarote to Dakhla, pitching this Moroccan-occupied city in occupied Western Sahara as a holiday destination.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if [Ryanair CEO] Michael O’Leary wasn’t aware of what this means, symbolically,” says McLoughlin, of Western Sahara Action Ireland.

The Polisario Front’s protests against these new routes would be like Palestinian protests against European economic ties to the occupied West Bank, says Riccardo Fabiani, North Africa project director at the International Crisis Group.

“If you buy a product made by a factory in the West Bank, you’re effectively implicitly recognizing and legitimising the Israeli occupation,” Fabiani says. “So for the Polisario, the same logic applies to flying to Dakhla.”

In July, Israel announced it was recognising Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara, something US President Donald Trump had previously done, in 2020.

But what about those tourist euros?

Ryanair’s press release about the new flight talks about “driving tourism and economic growth in yet another Moroccan region”.

Any potential economic benefits of the new flights would not go to the Sahrawi people, though, says Nafaa, the Polisario Front representative in Ireland.

Instead, they “will surely go to the Moroccan occupying administration, as has been the case for the revenues obtained from the illegal exploitation of the natural resources in Occupied Western Sahara since the beginning of the occupation in 1975”, he said.

It’s important to remember, says McLoughlin, of Western Sahara Action Ireland, that the majority of the Sahrawi population fled the coastal regions as refugees – many are in neighbouring Algeria now – so they’re just not there anymore to benefit.

Those who remain are treated as “second-class citizens”, and protests against the Moroccan occupation are met with violent responses, McLoughlin says. “We’ve had a number of people over here over the years for treatment after being tortured.”

Still, Fabiani, of the International Crisis Group, said there are Sahrawi workers and business people living in Moroccan-occupied Dakhla, who might benefit economically.

“The Moroccans do not necessarily discriminate against the Sahrawi population, although they do discriminate against pro-independence activists,” Fabiani says. “If you’re willing to comply, then there are no limits.”

Nafaa, the Polisario Front representative in Ireland, says the potential economic benefits to some are beside the point anyway.

“It is not a question of ‘benefits’ but one of rights and interests of a people living under occupation,” Nafaa says. “Launching these flights is not only an affront to the right of self-determination of the Sahrawi people but is also a direct contribution to an illegal occupation.”

Ryanair, which also flies to cities including Rabat, Marrakesh, Fez, Agadir, Tetouan, Essaouira, and Nador in Morocco, in its press release about the new flights to Dakhla plámásed the government of Morocco.

“Ryanair extends our sincere gratitude to the Head of Government, His Excellency Mr. Aziz Akhannouch, the Minister for Tourism, Ms. Fatim-Zahra Ammor, and the Moroccan National Tourism Office (MNTO) for their support and vision in securing this major investment in Morocco,” it says.

Meanwhile, in a statement, Ghali Zber of the Saharawi Observatory of Natural Resources said that “The Sahrawi people continue to suffer under Morocco’s occupation, facing human rights violations and systemic repression.”

“By engaging in business activities in Western Sahara without the consent of the Polisario Front, the legitimate representative of the Sahrawi people, Ryanair risks contributing to the perpetuation of these injustices,” Zber said.