Speaking to the press, Ould Errachid blamed the Polisario separatists - they lay claims to Morocco's southern provinces - for using the issue for "propaganda" ends.

    The official recalled that, during its recent visit to the southern town of Laayoune, the UNHCHR delegation has seen that there were no cases of human rights violations, and that people enjoy the right to express their rights freely.

    "Morocco guarantees the right to express one's opinion, but as a democratic State, it cannot allow resorting to violence to express political ideas," he noted, however.

    Ould Errachid also voiced Morocco's concern over the situation in the Polisario-run Tindouf camps, western Algeria, where thousands of Moroccans are held against their will after they were lured into joining the camps in the seventies.

    The CORCAS delegation held several meetings with a number of Canary officials. Ould Errachid voiced satisfaction over the meetings, adding: “we agreed on the Canary officials’ support to a solution [to the Sahara issue] based on autonomy and on the need for all parties to engage in negotiations to find an agreement on all issues.”