Morocco: Overseas Students
House of Lords
Written answers and statements, 4 November 2009
Lord Avebury (Liberal Democrat)
To ask Her Majesty's Government what reply they have received from the Government of Morocco to their demands concerning the decision to withdraw permission from students who had been given visas to attend a Talk Together event in Oxford in August, which had received funding from the British Council.
Lord Brett (Government Whip (technically a Lord in Waiting, HM Household); Labour)
On
In their reply, the Moroccan Government said that the decision by the students from Casablanca not to take part in the event meant that the delegation as it stood lacked the necessary balance and was not representative of all sides to the dispute. The Moroccan authorities told us that, in these circumstances, they felt it would have been inappropriate for only students from Laayoune to participate.
The Government understand that the British Council did not directly fund this event. Talk Together received funding from the European Commission's Youth in Action programme, a programme the British Council is contracted to administer in the UK on behalf of the European Commission.