Morocco's best-known human rights activist has gone on hunger strike at Lanzarote airport in the Spanish Canary Islands. 

Aminatou Haidar was arriving back in Western Sahara from the Canary Islands when she was arrested for filling in her nationality as "Saharan" on an airport arrival form. The Moroccan authorities claimed she had "renounced her Moroccan nationality", confiscated her passport and put her on a flight back to the Canary Islands. The Spanish refuse to let her fly to Western Sahara again since she has no travel document.

Ms Haidar, sometimes known as "the Gandhi of the Western Sahara", is regarded by the Moroccan authorities as a pro-Polisario activist and has spent several years in jail. Western Sahara was a Spanish colony until 1975, when it became independent. It was subsequently occupied by Morocco. Fighting between Morocco and the separatist Polisario movement ended with a UN-brokered ceasefire in 1992.

Photo: Aminatou Haidar (Flickr/ Saharauiak)