4. What is your assessment on the humanitarian situation in the Tindouf camps in Algeria?

Описание: Question 6:What is your assessment on the humanitariansituation in the Tindouf camps in Algeria?

The human rights violations by the Polisario in the Tindoufcamps in Algeria have been ongoing since the first camps were set up more than 40 years ago. Systematically abuses have increased. Thousands of Sahrawi still remain trapped in desperate conditions with no freedom of speech or association, no free movement, no right to education and no right to work, in flagrant violation of the international humanitarian law.

Access to the camps by human rights monitors is limited to strict visa requirements by Algeria. Algeria and the Polisario constantly refuse and hampers any action of the UN to conduct a census.Many independent and highly recognized bodies report that the Polisario and Algerian officials divert food aid intended for camp populations to the black market. The Report released by the European Anti- Fraud Office (OLAF) confirms this unacceptable reality.

Few people realize that this is the only refugee camp in the world where the UNHCR has not been allowed to do its job. The absence of a clear legal framework governing the condition of the populations of Tindouf is an exceptional, unprecedented situation in international law.

The polisario has no legitimacy to represent the people living in the Sahara. The majority of the people the polisario claim to represent are living in the southern provinces of Morocco where they fully enjoy their rights and their life.Moreover, the civilian population in Tindouf is prevented from free movement and the right to return to Morocco or settle in other parts of the Algerian territory or a third country. This constitutes a very serious flagrant and important violation to the 1951 Geneva Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol.

Why is morocco insisting on the conduct of a census?

It is not only Morocco, but the entire international community and the Security Council who are calling consistently for the conduct of a census.

It is high time for the international community to stand up and request that clear answers be provided to the 4 following key questions:

1.How many people are living in the Tindouf camps?
2.What is the will of those people?
3.Do they want to stay where they are or move elsewhere?
4.Where have the millions of Euros in the form of humanitarian aid gone?

Facts are Facts. A census of the population would have provided clear answers. Yet a census remains allusive and blocked despite several appeals by the UN Security Council,the EU one of the biggest donors to the camps and other partners and civil society’s organization

Let’s ask 3 questions for all of us that must be addressed urgently:
1.What is it that some parties want to hide from the international community?
2.Can Algeria outsource the protection of Human rights on its own territory?
3.How does it come that a country namely Algeria accepts to hand over its international responsibilities to an armed group? This non-State entity, which is not recognized by the UN, does not subscribe to any international obligation and thus, it is not accountable before the international community.