Two journalists from Australia, Daniel Fallshaw and Violetta Ayala, spent more than a month in the Polisario camps. They find out that in 2007, slavery still exists and is practiced on a large scale in the refugee’s camps of Tindouf Fallshaw and Ayala are not pro-Moroccans and the purpose of their stay and research in the camps was to support the theses of the Polisario. However, day by day, they have learned how to know better the populations of the camps and they find out that the blacks live between themselves, eat between themselves and mix rarely with those whose skin is light.
Apparently, their investigation starts to obstruct the political police chiefs of the Polisario. The two journalists were locked up and questioned about the real purpose of their report. They succeeded to escape the camps with the help of the Australian Embassy in Algeria. In fact the real and legitimate question is who tolerate such practices in the camps? Are people working over there without being remunerated? The Polisario refused any comment on this subject. However, some of its leaders under cover of anonymity said that those were “cultural practices”, and not “slavery”. Culture? Can one really speak about “culture” when it is about slavery? Certainly not.