In a draft report on the 2013 general EU budget, the Committee called for an immediate adaptation of the EU aid to meet the needs of the population in the camps in a way that prevents embezzlement.

This call comes after the OLAF disclosed a report on mass embezzlement of humanitarian aid by Polisario and Algerian officials.

The report deplored  that only a small part of the aid finds its way to the Tindouf camps, while the rest is sold in foreign markets to enrich Algerian and Polisario officials.

The report mentioned the overestimation of the population of the camps as one of the reasons facilitating the embezzlement of humanitarian aid.

The EU has been sending humanitarian aid to the camps since 1975 on the basis of numbers provided by Algerian authorities estimating the camps’ population at 155,000.

Algeria and the Polisario continue to maintain the status-quo by refusing a census of the population in the Tindouf camps by the UN.

News and events on Western Sahara issue/ CORCAS