Speaking at a conference held at the initiative of the Cork-based NGO "Ethical Development Action" (EDA), the expatriates questioned the decision of "Fronline" -a human rights NGO- not to conduct an investigation into those serious violations, especially into the situation of Moroccan prisoners in those camps, who have been detained in inhumane conditions for more than 28 years.

    They also called on Frontline to shed light on the human rights breaches perpetrated in Algeria and that were confirmed by several international organizations operating in the area of human rights, including Amnesty International.

    Frontline’s communication manager, Jim Loughran, stressed that Frontline did not “complete its work”, saying that the Dublin-based NGO plans to conduct field visits in both the Tindouf camps and Algeria to assess the situation of human rights there.      

    The Moroccan expatriates called on the international organizations to open a probe into the embezzlement by the separatists of the humanitarian aids destined to the people sequestrated in Tindouf. The latter are denied the most basic rights such as the right to movement.

    They also exposed the lies of the opponents of Morocco's territorial integrity, who tried, as usual, to instrumentalize a simple procedural issue and claimed that Idegja Lachgar, a so-called Sahrawi activist, was "prevented" from traveling to Ireland to participate in the conference.

 Lachgar, they explained, had simply no entry visa to Ireland. The airline company did not want to pay the penalty on airlifting a passenger without a visa, and thus denied her access to the plane in accordance with the rules and laws in force.

    The inhabitants of the Tindouf camps “have spent the last thirty-three years living in refugee camps in the Algerian Sahara, in a physical and political environment incapable of sustaining human dignity,” EDA said in a press release.

    “They are continually confronted with the ongoing issues that surround this conflict:the denial of basic human rights, access to adequate water, to food and shelter and to rewarding employment,” it added.

Source: MAP
News and events on Western Sahara issue/ Corcas