The Hague, January 28, 2016 (SPS) - The Dutch Parliament voted for the one-sided cancellation of the social security convention with Morocco after Rabat request to expand the payment of the family allowances to the beneficiaries living in Morocco to include the occupied Sahrawi territories.
At least 91 members of the Dutch Parliament voted for the termination of this agreement, concluded on 14 February 1972, while 56 voices were against the cancellation.
The Netherlands government is now obliged to inform its Moroccan counterpart of this decision before 1st February. The decision will be formalized on 1st July 2016 when published in the Official Bulletin.
These two stages are necessary so The Hague can apply its own system of social security to the Moroccans living abroad and the beneficiaries living in Moroccans, as from 1stJanuary 2017.
By the cancellation of the agreement, the Netherlands rejected the alleged sovereignty of Morocco over Sahrawi territories, illegally occupied since 1975.
Registered since 1966 in the list of the non-self-governing territories, and thus eligible to the application of Resolution 1514 of the UN General Assembly on the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, Western Sahara is the last colony in Africa, occupied since 1975 by Morocco. (SPS)
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