It called on the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to establish a significant presence in the camps to ensure the protection of refugees' rights, especially freedom of movement.

    "Under its obligations to collaborate with UNHCR, Algeria must remove all obstacles standing in the way of this rights-based approach, including its opposition to census and documentation (...), its military cooperation with the Polisario that contributes to restrictions on the freedom of movement," the think tank said in a recent report.

    Although Algeria is signatory to the legal conventions regarding refugee rights and participates in the functions of the UNHCR, it has not discharged its responsibilities vis-à-vis the refugees on its land, the report deplored, regretting the fact that the role of the UNHCR as the implementing international agency for the protection of refugees (…) has preferred to take on a secondary role of providing food and materiel to the camps.

    Given the abuses that have existed for more than 30 years, it is imperative that this be changed so that another generation of this population is not robbed of their rights, opportunities, and future, added the report, which recalled that “UNHCR has the power to seek the intervention of other United Nations institutions, such as the Security Council (UNSC), in order to advance and protect refugee rights.”

    The document noted that while the UNSC has been actively seeking a solution to the Sahara issue, and despite clear evidence that abuses and violation of population rights exist, UNHCR has failed to seek UNSC assistance to resolve and remedy these abuses.

    It is the time for UNHCR, the report went on, to monitor “more effectively” the situation in the Tindouf Camps “to ensure accountability and transparency in aid distribution, calling for an immediate census and prevention of the militarization of the camps.

    The same source urged the establishment of an intimidation‐free, voluntary repatriation program for Tindouf population so that they will be able to return to Morocco or otherwise leave the camps to settle elsewhere.

     Created in 1997, the Inter-University Center for Legal Studies is a think tank that contributes to a wide range of topics concerning human rights, ethnic and racial issues and religious tolerance, terrorism and war crimes. It is present in 35 countries around the world.

 Source: MAP
New ans events concerning Western Sahara issue/ CORCAS