Geneva — The French Movement against Racism and for Friendship between Peoples (MRAP) has expressed its concern over the excessive use of arbitrary detention by Morocco against Sahrawi political prisoners, calling on the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to visit these detainees.

In an oral presentation to the 54th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, on Friday, the organization expressed its concern about the increasing cases of arbitrary detention that Morocco is using in an excessive manner.

MRAP also denounced the persistence of Moroccan occupying authorities in continuing "the policy of evasion and their systematic refusal to implement the recommendations presented by the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention."

The organization reminded the Human Rights Council of the case of the sisters Sultana and Al-Waara Khaya, mentioned in the report of the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.

The report notably described the practices of the Moroccan occupying police as "dangerous and inhumane" due to the torture and sexual assaults that the two sisters suffered with impunity.

MRAP stated that the assault on Sultana Khaya and her sister Al-Waara occurred during the Covid-19 pandemic, a health crisis that the Moroccan occupying forces exploited to "isolate the two women and besiege them inside their family home" in the occupied city of Boujdour.

As a reminder, several United Nations member states have called on the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Human Rights Council to shed light on the systematic violations of human rights and international humanitarian law committed by the Moroccan occupier in the occupied territories of Western Sahara.

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