From Geneva, civil society actors issued a call during a recent meeting urging the United Nations to ensure protection for Sahrawis in the Tindouf camps by granting them official refugee status, a right denied for the past 50 years due to the Polisario Front and Algeria's determination to use the camp population as leverage in their ongoing conflict with Morocco. On the sidelines of the 59th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, held from June 16 to July 9, a meeting focused on the right of return for Sahrawis was held on June 25 in Geneva, organized by international advocacy groups. «The conference aimed to advocate for the right of return of Sahrawis held in the Tindouf camps in Algeria», Abdelouahab Gaïn, president of the Africa Watch Human Rights Association, told Yabiladi. «These camps are the scene of ongoing human rights violations, including extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, rape, torture, and degrading treatment that undermines human dignity», said Gaïn, who took part in the meeting. Participants called on the international community to intervene and ensure the protection of those held in the Tindouf camps, in line with international human rights conventions and the resolutions of the UN Human Rights Council. Gaïn also noted that an appeal had been made to UN special rapporteurs on human rights to urge Algeria to conduct a census of the population in the camps. Mustapha Salma's Call from Mauritania The Africa Watch president also deplored the fact that residents of the Tindouf camps are still denied refugee status in accordance with the 1951 Geneva Convention and its 1967 Protocol. This status would allow displaced persons the option to return to their country of origin or settle in a host country. Gaïn emphasized that the camp population is also denied freedom of movement. Permits to leave the camps are issued sparingly by Algerian authorities and the Polisario Front. Thousands of kilometers away, Mustapha Salma—an outspoken critic of the Polisario leadership since his fallout with the group in 2010—echoed this concern on the occasion of World Refugee Day, marked each year on June 20. He recalled UN Security Council resolutions calling on Algeria to register Sahrawis living in the camps. «Refugee status is a contract between the host country and the asylum seeker, coordinated through the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees)», he explained on social media. «Once the application is approved, the UNHCR assumes responsibility for the refugee, in coordination with the host country and its institutions». Salma warned that such a development is deeply feared by the Polisario. «Stripped of its authority over the Sahrawis in the Tindouf camps, the Polisario Front would no longer be able to freely recruit them or exploit them for its political agenda», said the exile, currently based in Mauritania.
