Court threat over ‘blood phosphate’
New Zealand fertiliser companies buying ‘‘blood phosphate’’ from Western Sahara may face court action.
Ballance Agri-Nutrients and Ravensdown have come under pressure in recent months for their $30 million importation of phosphate from the long-disputed African territory.
Kamal Fadel, a representative of Western Sahara liberation movement Polisario Front, says a legal case against the companies is being considered.
The movement has been emboldened by a court decision in South Africa that halted a shipment of phosphate to New Zealand in 2017.
‘‘If we bring a case to court tomorrow against these companies, we will win.’’
Sydney-based Fadel is visiting Wellington this week to meet Ministry Foreign Affairs and Trade officials, MPs and the Fertiliser Association of New Zealand.
He plans to discuss the decades-long dispute between Morocco and the Sahrawi people over Western Sahara, formerly a colony of Spain.
The Moroccan administration of the territory has been described as a brutal occupation by international human rights groups, and 165,000 Sahrawi have fled to refugee camps in Algeria, as Morocco buries millions of landmines along a military border in the contested land.
Morocco controls 70 to 80 per cent of the world’s phosphate, most of it near the Sahara desert and some in Western Sahara.
Ravensdown and Ballance Argi-Nutrients, which make 98 per cent of all fertilisers sold in New Zealand, are two of three buyers of Western Saharan phosphate – the other being a subsidiary of the mine’s operator.
Fadel said buying the ‘‘blood phosphate’’ legitimises Moroccan oppression, provides resources to arm the border, delays the peace process and denies resources to a future sovereign Western Sahara.
Moroccans, who outnumber Sahrawi three to one, benefit the most from the mine, he said.
‘‘The responsibility lies with the Government and the New Zealand people.’’
He said New Zealand had an international reputation as an upholder of peace, and played an active role in East Timor gaining independence in similar circumstances. ‘‘This is embarrassing.
‘‘The writing on the wall is very clear for the companies to stop this illegal plunder.’’
Ballance Agri-Nutrients chief executive Mark Wynne visited Western Sahara in June, and is confident the mine meets international, national and local laws, and regulations.
Mine operator OCP Group extracts Western Saharan phosphate through a subsidiary said to retain and locally reinvest 100 per cent of all profits.
FANZ chief executive Dr Vera Power, who has also visited the mine, said the trade was legal and any further comment on court action would be speculative.
She was looking forward to meeting Fadel to hear his views.