Moroccan Foreign Minister Mohammad Benaissa has denied accusations that his country has dumped sub-Saharan African migrants in the Sahara desert

Pascale Harter:

A group fighting for Western Saharan independence said it had taken in more than 90 Africans wandering in the desert after Morocco expelled them.

But Mr Benaissa said the allegations were propaganda orchestrated by the Polisario Front and its ally, Algeria.

The migrants accuse Moroccan security forces of ill-treating them.

Morocco's government also accused neighbouring Algeria of responsibility for recent unrest on the frontiers between Morocco and Spain's two enclaves in North Africa, during which at least 10 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa were shot dead.

Last week, Morocco came under widespread criticism over its tactics during mass attempts by the migrants to storm the frontier between Morocco and the Spanish territories.

Mr Benaissa said reports that it had removed and then abandoned some of the migrants in the Sahara desert without food or water were untrue.

He accused Algeria of failing to control the trafficking of illegal immigrants across its borders.

Algeria backs the Polisario Front, the separatist movement of the disputed Western Sahara territory annexed by Morocco in 1975.

''Both Algeria and the Polisario launch propaganda against Morocco on a so-called humanitarian basis. This is part of the publicity and the campaign Algeria is launching against Morocco to deviate attention from the real issue, the Sahara issue," Mr Benaissa said.

"The Moroccan government never, ever dumped any individual, man or woman, anywhere.'' Migrants from Sub-Saharan Africa intent on crossing illegally into Spain spend months or even years on a perilous journey through the Sahara desert, only to be moved back and forth across the Morocco-Algerian border by police.

This has been happening for years, but came to light after reports by Medecins Sans Frontieres that around 1,000 sub-Saharan Africans had been dumped on the desert border by Moroccan police.

MSF said the men, women and children had been abandoned without water and were in need of urgent medical attention.

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