Morocco has again asked the UN Agency for Refugee to insist that Algeria authorizes the census of Sahrawis living in Tindouf camps, a request which is well founded at a time when the Sahrawi people continue escaping, in groups, these camps to join Morocco.
The call has been launched by the Foreign Affairs Moroccan Minister at a time when another group of 49 Sahrawis has arrived to the South of Morocco. These Sahrawis joined hundreds of other compatriots who have reached Morocco these last months. According to the Minister, a census led by the UN Agency for Refugees would also allow these populations to express freely themselves about their right of remaining in the camps or joining their homeland.
By opening these camps, the UN Agency for Refugee would shed light on what is really happing and, thus, contribute to put an end to abuses and human rights violations committed there.
But the Algerian authorities turned a deaf ear to this call, which makes desperate the Sahrawi people in Tindouf. Thus, escaping the camps, for those who have the means and capacity to do so, remains the unique recourse. By doing so, these escaped prisoners in the desert express their revolt against the difficult conditions in which are retained by force thousands of Sahrawis in the precarious camps, in the Algerian desert.
They also intend to denounce the Polisario leaders who exploit the suffering of populations in the camps, not to serve the Sahrawis’ interests, but to serve Algeria’s position of hegemony in the region.
Sahrawis who joined Moroccco, and whose number is continuously increasing , have, in fact, been encouraged and convinced by the Moroccan Autonomy Proposal in the Sahara, which has been unanimously welcomed by the UN Security Council.
Henceforth, the international community has privileged the political way to reach a realistic, sustainable solution to a regional problem which has too much lasted, and which first victims are the Sahrawis retained in Tindouf for political blackmail purposes.