Responding to a MP question, the Ministry said that "this embezzlement of humanitarian assistance, if true, would not be acceptable and would need an answer," adding that the European Parliament asked the Commission to re-evaluate aid and adapt it to the real needs of the populations, to ensure that the interests of the populations of the Tindouf camps and their needs are not harmed.

In its response published this week in the Official Bulletin, the French Foreign Ministry also emphasized that the census in Tindouf camps was necessary for the High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) so that it can provide protection entrusted by the 1951 Refugee Convention.

In a question in the National Assembly, MP Yves Bonami attracted the attention of Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius on a report by the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) released late January 2015 which refers to a serious embezzlement of humanitarian aid to Tindouf camps in Algeria.

The European Union, one of the main providers of humanitarian aid, allocated humanitarian aid worth € 105 million to people living in the Tindouf camps between 1994 and 2004, said the deputy, noting that this report highlights a systematic misuse of part of the humanitarian aid for several years.

Part of this misuse would be much easier with the deliberate overestimation of the number of refugees in the Tindouf camps by the Algerian authorities, said the MP, who called on France to support any binding initiative to allow a census of the populations of the Tindouf camps by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, to end the exploitation of this humanitarian situation for political and financial purposes.

- News and events on Western Sahara issue / Corcas-