Major Event

Algera's responsibility in Tindouf camps is indivisible, nontransferable and inalienable
3/4/2010

Algeria's responsibility in Tindouf camps remains "indivisible, nontransferable and inalienable," until the closure of these camps and the return of its population to their home land, Morocco, the Kingdom's Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva Omar Hilale said on Wednesday.

Speaking at the 47th Standing Committee meeting of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Hilale made it clear that any unilateral attempt to alter the legal status of the population held against their will in the camps of Tindouf (southwestern Algeria) will be null and void.

He said that the visit by the UN High Commissioner to Tindouf in September 2009 was an opportunity to uncover Algeria’s failure to honor its international obligations regarding the camps, which it left under the mercy of an armed group in a stark violation of the 1951 Geneva Convention on Refugees and the 1967 Protocol.

Morocco noted with deep concern that the polisario took advantage of this visit to put the high commissioner before a fait accompli by involving him in an inauguration of a so-called court. In this regard, Hilale deplored that the UNHCR violated its budget and mandate regulations when it provided a financial assistance to furbish the court.

Hilale called on Algeria to uphold its international obligations regarding the camps by virtue of the 1951 Geneva Convention on Refugees and UN resolutions, and urged the UNHCR and donor countries to exert pressure on Algeria in order to take a head count of the population held against their will in the camps.

Morocco stressed the need to take a census of the camp's population because it is convinced that the numbers forwarded by the Algerian authorities are exaggerated, he added, noting that the few NGOs which visited the camps, satellite photos and polisario leaders who joined Morocco say that the number of the population held in the camps does not exceed 30,000.

Prohibiting the UNHCR from carrying out its mission since the outbreak of the conflict in 1977 should not be ignored in the reports that the UN body elaborates on the humanitarian situation in the camps, Hilale stressed,

The mandate of the UNHCR should be applied in Algeria as a host country without restrictions and in conformity with the international law for refugees, Hilale said.

Source: MAP
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