The Arab Committees of the Afro-Asian Solidarity Organization welcomed on Sunday in Damascus, the Moroccan proposal to grant enlarged autonomy to the southern provinces of Morocco.

A group of 51 Sahrawis, including 19 women and 14 children, fled oppression in the Polisario-run Tindouf camps to join, on Sunday, their homeland, Morocco.

Sixteen people have recently returned to the motherland after years of deprivation in Tindouf camps.

The political solution to the Sahara issue requires that the parties show realism and a spirit of compromise, said the joint statement adopted at the 11th Moroccan-Portuguese High Joint Commission, held on Wednesday in Marrakech.

A group of 57 Sahrawis, including 18 women and 11 children, has recently escaped the Tindouf camps, south-western Algeria, and joined their homeland, Morocco.