Western Sahara Campaign-NZ has to sadly report that yet another cargo of phosphate rock plundered from occupied Western Sahara is headed to New Zealand. The vessel Stoney Stream is carrying a cargo of phosphate rock to Napier for Ravensdown. This follows a similar cargo , for Ballance Agri-Nutrients, that arrived in New Zealand in January.

This time rather than just, in the words of the High Court posing a ‘reputational risk’ to New Zealand the imports highlight a double standard that the NZ Government is employing. The invasion of Ukraine has brought sharply into focus the horror of invasion which is something the people of Western Sahara know full well. However, unlike the offers of assistance that Ukraine is receiving from New Zealand all that Western Sahara is receiving is the knowledge that its plundered resources will continue to be imported by Ravensdown and Ballance Agri-Nutrients. These imports will see no intervention from the New Zealand Government.

Western Sahara Campaign-NZ calls on Minister Nanaia Mahuta to urgently reassess New Zealand’s position on Western Sahara and order an immediate halt to the imports. Western Sahara Campaign-NZ also calls on Napier MP Stuart Nash to raise the matter of these imports directly with Ravensdown and remind it of the ‘reputational risk’ to both New Zealand, and Napier, that they pose.

As it stands New Zealand is aiding and abetting a Moroccan regime that invaded and occupied a territory in violation of the UN charter and resolutions.

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