Sahrawi Rights Groups Urge Urgent International Action Over Hunger-Striking Prisoner
Sahrawi human rights organizations have launched an international petition calling on the United Nations, global human rights bodies and other international stakeholders to intervene urgently to protect the life of Sahrawi civilian prisoner Naâma Asfari, who has been on a hunger strike for 35 consecutive days.
The appeal, initiated by the Sahrawi Human Rights Coordination Mechanism, urges the international community to take immediate action in response to what it describes as serious violations of Asfari’s fundamental rights and those of other Sahrawi political prisoners held in Moroccan prisons.
The organizations called for the immediate and unconditional release of Naâma Asfari and all Sahrawi political prisoners. They also urged the implementation of United Nations decisions, particularly the 2023 opinion issued by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concerning Asfari’s case.
The petition further requests urgent medical care for the hunger-striking prisoner and calls for the International Committee of the Red Cross to be granted access to Asfari and other Sahrawi detainees. It also demands an end to what the organizations describe as retaliatory measures targeting their families.
In addition, the rights groups appealed for an urgent visit by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and unrestricted access for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to Sahrawi political prisoners in Moroccan detention facilities.
The petition has been addressed to several international figures, including UN Secretary-General António Guterres, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, and the European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas.
Meanwhile, the League for the Protection of Sahrawi Prisoners in Moroccan Prisons, citing Asfari’s family, stated that he remains determined to continue his hunger strike despite what it described as a deeply worrying deterioration in his health.
The organization also issued an urgent appeal to international human rights and humanitarian organizations to increase pressure on Morocco to respond to the prisoners’ demands and to end what it characterized as medical neglect and systematic deprivation inside Moroccan prisons.
Separately, the Association of Families of Sahrawi Prisoners and Disappeared Persons (AFAPREDESA) called on the international community to intervene immediately to protect the life of Asfari, who has been imprisoned for more than 15 years. The association held the Moroccan authorities fully responsible for any further deterioration in his health or any fatal outcome and criticized what it described as continued international silence regarding Morocco’s compliance with international human rights mechanisms.
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