2009 detention and deportation from El-Aaiún

Nomination for the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize
2008 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award




In November 13, 2009, Aminatou Haidar was arrested on her return to El-Aaiún for allegedly refusing to fill "Morocco" in the "Country" case on her entry card. She later declared that she is not visiting Morocco but Western Sahara. She refuses to accept that Western Sahara is a part of Morocco. "They want to impose it on me to recognize that Western Sahara belongs to Morocco," she declared to journalists on November the 14th.

Haidar arrived at El-Aaiún airport from Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands. She was with two Spanish journalists, Pedro Barbadillo and Pedro Guillén, who accompanied her with the intention of making a documnetary about alleged human rights abuses in Western Sahara. The two journalists were detained from trespassing and filming in the Layoune airport without previous authorisation. Moroccan authorities claim that Haidar declared she was renouncing her Moroccan citizenship and that she voluntarily signed the renunciation documents, and surrendered her passport and national ID card. Following this alleged renunciation, she was deported, along with the two journalists that accompanied her, to Lanzarote in the Canary Islands. Barbadillo, who was with her when she filled the entry documents to travel to Western Sahara, claims that the version of the Moroccan government is false and declared he saw her filling the form himself. Documents that were retrieved and published in the Spanish newspaper "El Pais" show that the Moroccan government had made three different flight reservations for Haidar, showing that they had planned to expel her from the country days in advance of her actual arrival. Due to the fact that they did not know with certainty when she would be arriving, they scheduled three different flights on her name, so they could deport her whenever she arrived.

Haidar finally arrived at El-Aaiún on the 13th of November. She was arrested and expelled from Morocco, her documents were taken and Morocco's official press says she renounced her nationality. According to El Pais, Haidar informed the pilot on her flight back to Spanish territory that she did not have documents to travel and was being held against her will. The pilot doubted, but finally took off after receving a call. The party finally arrived at Lanzarote about noon on Saturday evening, and Haidar sought the urgent intervention of United Nations Secretary General to "ensure personal protection" and declined to leave the departures terminal at Lanzarote airport, claiming that the Spanish authorities had kidnapped her, by declining to allow her to board another international flight (to El-Aaiún) because she was unable to produce her passport. She was apparently entitled to travel within Spanish territory. Mohamed Salem, a delegate of the Frente Polisario in Canarias, claimed that she intended to remain at the terminal of Lanzarote airport, and engage in a hunger strike in protest against her kidnap by the Spanish authorities.

On November 17, while on hunger strike, she was told by Spanish authorities to appear in court on public order charges.

Public Figures Show Support for Haidar
Ever since Haidar was deported, several actors, writers and famous personalities have shown support for her cause and have asked both, the Moroccan and the Spanish government, to solve the situation. Writer Jose Saramago, who could not be in Lanzarote to meet with Haidar in person, sent her a letter of support. Eduardo Galeano and Javier Bardem, are among the personalities that have asked both governments to put an end to this injustice. Bardem published an open letter in the Spanish newspaper "El Mundo" in which he expressed his "support and respect for the Human Rights fighter and representative of the suffering Saharawi people." His letter harshly criticizes the Spanish government for its "blindness" to the injustices that happen in the Sahara. Galeano has also shown his solidarity with Haidar, thanking her for her bravery. "People like you help us confirm that a fight for another world, the other possible world that this one carries within itself, is not and will never be a useless passion. Thank you very much. Lots of people love you, and I am one in that lot.".