The vessel 'Alycia' arrived on Tuesday 7 August 2012 at Risdon dock in Hobart, ready to discharge its controversial cargo of phosphate from occupied Western Sahara for the local fertilizer producer Impact Fertilisers.
The Tasmanian fertiliser company Impact has for a number of years purchased phosphate rock from occupied Western Sahara. The purchases contribute to uphold the occupation of the territory. It comes labelled as import from 'Morocco' although it really comes from Western Sahara. Morocco illegally and brutally occupied Western Sahara in 1975.
The phosphate rock is used to make superphosphate fertiliser used mainly to improve pasture, but sometimes for crops.
The Maltese flagged vessel (IMO number 958336) loaded the cargo in occupied territory on 18 June 2012.
It is owned by a Greek shipping company. The image above shows the vessel docked at the harbour in Risdon, Tasmania, on 7 August 2012.
The Australian Western Sahara Association protests the purchase by Australian companies of phosphate coming from Western Sahara which is sold by the occupying power, Morocco, without consulting the indigenous Saharawi people, without their consent, and giving them no benefit.
WSRW has on several occasions called on Impact to halt its unethical purchases.
In October-November 2010 tens of thousands of Saharawis held a protest camp at Gdeim Izik, near the occupied capital, El Aaiun. They complained that they were being treated as second class citizens in their own country, while Morocco exploited their natural resources for its profit.
The Advocate General of the EU’s top Court backs the legal status of the people of Western Sahara. Final Judgment expected in a few months.
Labelling those products as originating in the Kingdom of Morocco instead of originating in Western Sahara breaches EU law, the Advocate General of the EU Court of Justice concludes.
After undertaking work for the Moroccan state phosphate company in Western Sahara, the Danish consultancy giant COWI states that it “will not engage in further projects" in the occupied territory.
An external evaluation report on the EU-Morocco fisheries agreement 2019-2023 confirms that the agreement revolves, in its entirety, around Western Sahara.