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Spanish foreign minister Miguel Moratinos has offered Saharan activist Aminatou Haidar Spanish nationality as a way of seeking an end to Ms Haidar's hunger strike in Lanzarote airport. Ms Haidar has spent the last 13 days sitting in the departure lounge of Lanzarote airport after being denied entry to the Western Sahara (Morocco) as her Moroccan passport has been withdrawn by Rabat.
Sr Moratino spoke at length over the telephone with Ms Haidar today, during which conversation he offered her the chance of a Spanish passport. Ms Haidar was attended to by doctors this morning after fainting due to her hunger strike. He has also repeated an earlier offer made to her, that if she reapplied for a Moroccan passport and was denied one she would be granted political asylum by Spain.
However, despite calls made by Spanish Vice President Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega yesterday for Ms Hairdar to abandon her strike, Sr Moratinos did not request an end to her protest. He has sent a personal embassy to Lanzarote to ensure her well being.
Ms Haidar, who initially received the phone call "out of courtesy", in her own words, expressed to the minister her indignation for the "ill treatment" received by her when returned to Lanzarote on the 14th of November, and complained that nobody from the Spanish Government had contacted her before.
President Zapatero has asked King Mohamed VI of Morocco, via the diplomatic service in Rabat, to "work with Spain to find a common solution" to the problem of Ms Haidar's nationality.
Ms Haidar is a Saharan activist who works to publicize the plight of her people in the Western Sahara, currently part of Morocco. Her passport was withdrawn earlier this month by the Moroccon authorities. According to Rabat Ms Haidar had failed to renew her passport, but Ms Haidar accused Rabat of not wanting her to return to her home village in Morocco. She was denied entry in Morocco and returned to Lanzarote airport, from where she had caught her connecting flight.
Related story: Sahrawi dissident on hunger strike in Lanzarote airport
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