This disputed area in northwest Africa has had high population change due to a large number of people living as displaced refugees. Morocco controls about three-quarters of the territory, and has offered its citizens money, food subsidies, and tax exemptions to move there.
In the 1990s, coastal towns in the Western Sahara became key migration transit points for reaching the Canary Islands, after Spain and Italy tightened visa restrictions and the European Union put pressure on Morocco to control illegal migration, which pushed African migrants to shift their routes.