 The conscience triggered some time ago at the European Parliament about the continued diversion of humanitarian aid, intended for people held in Tindouf camps, by Polisario and Algeria continues and is strengthening.
Contrary to allegations conveyed by detractors of this awareness which is growing at the European Parliament and fallacious arguments advanced by the services of the Algerian chancellery in Brussels which make believe in maneuvers orchestrated by far-right MEPs, “at the instigation of Morocco”, a new question introduced by Belgian MEP Olivier Chastel has confirmed the high degree of concern of European elected representatives about this situation.
Mr. Chastel, Vice-President of the Budget Committee within the European Parliament, underlined that despite assurances from the European Commission, "it seems that food from European humanitarian aid is still found today on the Mauritanian markets ”.
The MEP reminds the European Commission that the EU has provided humanitarian aid of ten million euros annually to the populations of the Tindouf camps for nearly thirty years and that a report from the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) made public in 2015 denounced the misappropriation of this humanitarian aid and recommended that an official census of the beneficiaries be carried out.
In addition, said Mr. Chastel, in July 2015, during a meeting of the Budgetary Control Committee of the European Parliament, the Director General in charge of humanitarian aid and civil protection had recognized that Algeria imposed 5% on the amount of humanitarian aid.
The Belgian MEP, who is also a member of the Budgetary Control Committee of the European Parliament and of the delegation in charge of relations with the Maghreb countries, calls on the European Commission if it had recent information concerning this aid, if it intends to strengthen the measures taken if it turns out that embezzlement has resumed and if it has found a solution as to the 5% tax imposed by Algeria on the amount of the aid.
The diversion of humanitarian aid by Polisario and Algeria is an issue at the European Parliament after the revelation by media and experts that this misappropriation continues on a large scale despite safeguards set up by the European Commission.
These suspicions of embezzlement increased as Algeria has recently called for the generosity of humanitarian organizations in the context of the pandemic of the new coronavirus.
Many MEPs, all political groups combined, who have raised this issue in recent months have been struck by the paradoxical situation which prevails both in the granting of this aid on the basis of erroneous figures, since a census has never been conducted.
The route of this trafficking has also been well traced by OLAF investigators.He explains in detail how the Algerian Red Crescent is the first actor in this diversion of aid, first landed at the port of Oran before falling into the Polisario's contraband nets.
MEPs also took an interest in the extremely worrying situation of the use of these aids to raise funds for the purchase of weapons for the purpose of carrying out terrorist acts and banditry and for recruiting purposes.
MEP Ilhan Kyuchyuk is one of those who expressed their concern about this situation, wondering how Algeria has the means to buy weapons from Polisario and cries for help to ask for food aid from kidnapped people from Tindouf.
In a recent question to the EU High Representative for Foreign Policy and Security, Josep Borrell, Mr Kyuchyuk asserts that it is well known that Polisario is heavily armed and has a large budget for maintenance of its military equipment and at the same time continuously exploits the humanitarian situation in the Tindouf camps to request food aid.
After several arrests and the triggering of monitoring mechanisms at the level of the European Parliament, the Association for the Defense of European Taxpayers (Taxepayer's Association of Europe) referred to an in-depth investigation that would be carried out by the relevant EU institutions in order to unravel the mystery surrounding the continuation of this large-scale trafficking
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