Govt helps secure Moroccan hostages release
The Irish Government has helped secure the release of 100 Moroccan prisoners held captive by a guerrilla movement.
The Polisario guerrilla movement has released 100 Moroccan prisoners on foot of representations from the Government in its role as president of the EU.
Junior Minister Tom Kitt said the prisoners were released in the Tindouf area of Algeria on foot of a meeting between himself and Polisario representatives in Dublin in recent months.
Deputy Kitt was in Tindouf area to witness the release of the prisoners, some of whom had been held for more than 20 years.
He pledged that the EU and Ireland would continue to support efforts to find a political solution in the region.
Polisario, a rebel group representing the indigenous Saharoui people of Western Sahara, fought a 16-year war with the Moroccan government between 1975 and 1991.
A 1991 ceasefire ended the conflict, but Polisario continues to hold hundreds of Moroccans taken prisoner during the fighting.
