{"id":655327,"date":"2026-10-15T08:36:52","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T08:36:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/655327\/"},"modified":"2026-10-15T08:36:52","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T08:36:52","slug":"ryanair-recognises-disputed-western-sahara-territory-in-controversial-marketing-campaign-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/655327\/","title":{"rendered":"Ryanair \u2018recognises\u2019 disputed Western Sahara territory in controversial marketing campaign \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Morocco<\/a>\u2019s claim over territory it occupies in Western Sahara is formally recognised by the United States, Israel, France and, now it seems, Ryanair<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The Irish budget airline has been pulled up for advertising flights to Dakhla as a \u201cMoroccan adventure\u201d, because the city is in fact located in Western Sahara, a neighbouring country occupied by Morocco since the 1970s in one of Africa<\/a>\u2019s longest-running territorial disputes. <\/p>\n

The Advertising Standards Authority<\/a>, in a preliminary ruling on foot of a complaint from Sinn F\u00e9in MEP Lynn Boylan<\/a>, found Ryanair\u2019s promotional material was misleading, on the basis that Dakhla was \u201cnot a part of Morocco\u201d. <\/p>\n

Morocco has occupied the majority of Western Sahara since 1976, after Spain<\/a> withdrew from its former colony on the northwest coast of Africa, near the Canary Islands. A Sahrawi guerrilla campaign by the Polisario Front had separately been fighting for independence. <\/p>\n

A United Nations-brokered ceasefire was agreed in 1991 between Morocco and the Polisario Front of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, which continues to press its claim.<\/p>\n

Sometimes referred to as Africa\u2019s last colony, Western Sahara is described by the UN as a \u201cnon-self-governing territory\u201d under international law. <\/p>\n

Promotional emails from Ryanair in March pushed flights to the coastal city of Dakhla as a place \u201cwhere ocean, desert, and culture come together\u201d, and offered visitors a chance to surf and \u201cexplore Moroccan culture up close\u201d. <\/p>\n

Hugh Lovatt, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations think tank, said Morocco commonly used tourism and trade to \u201cforce international recognition\u201d of its claim over Western Sahara.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether you are talking about the European Commission, or Ryanair, it\u2019s the price of doing business with Morocco that you include Western Sahara,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0EasyJet to cut 700,000 seats from winter flight schedule amid rising fuel costsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Boylan, an MEP for Dublin, complained to the State advertising watchdog that Ryanair\u2019s promotion of the Western Sahara city as a \u201cMoroccan adventure\u201d was misleading and offensive. \u201cThis advert erases indigenous people by showing the city as belonging to Morocco,\u201d her office wrote. <\/p>\n

In a preliminary decision, dated October 12th and seen by The Irish Times, the Advertising Standards Authority agreed the advert was likely to mislead people. <\/p>\n

It recommended the authority\u2019s independent council, which has to give the final sign off to decisions, uphold Boylan\u2019s complaint and direct that the advert should not appear in its current form again.<\/p>\n

In its submissions, Ryanair argued that it intended to give passengers an overview of the destination \u201cwithout expressing any political stance\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ryanair, which offers flights to Marrakesh, Rabat and Fez in Morocco, opened the route to Dakhla early last year. <\/p>\n

Morocco favours the creation of a Sahara autonomous region that has locally devolved powers but would remain under Morocco\u2019s authority. This is viewed as unacceptable to the Polisario Front, which continues to advocate for full independence and international recognition<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Morocco\u2019s claim over territory it occupies in Western Sahara is formally recognised by the United States, Israel, France…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":655328,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[83800,255,72,1814,61,60,3410,69543,30898,1899,2846,115],"class_list":["post-655327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-advertising-standards-authority","tag-africa","tag-business","tag-france","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-israel","tag-lynn-boylan","tag-morocco","tag-ryanair","tag-spain","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=655327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/655328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=655327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=655327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=655327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}