[5][6] The expulsion was a response to the Madrid Accords (which did not include the consultation of Algeria nor the POLISARIO movement)[7] and the earlier Green March in the Western Sahara.

[8][9] The exodus, code-named by the Algerian government as the "Black March", was carried out by Abdelaziz Bouteflika, then the foreign minister of Algeria at the time.

[10] 45,000 families were estimated to have been expelled; a large portion of them had lived in Algeria for decades or even centuries.

[16] The Moroccan Organization for Human Rights (ODHM) has also called for the United Nations to investigate the expulsion.

[14] In July 2014, the Moroccan Foreign Ministry brought the topic up again, urging Algeria to conduct a re-examination of the exodus.