ASIMCAT denounces the situation in the Tindouf camps and appeals to the international community

The Saharawi Association for the Struggle against Impunity in the Tindouf Camps, ASIMCAT, monitors with great concern what is filtering out from the Saharawi refugee camps in Tindouf, southwest Algeria, about the systematic campaigns of arrests and systematic repression by elements of the Polisario against activists, human rights defenders and any voice expressing an opinion contrary to their political line or discordant, or criticising the catastrophic spiral of the human rights situation inside these camps, which are increasingly witnessing an unbreathable siege of rights and freedoms.

The latest chapters in the series of repression carried out by the Polisario Front against activists in the camps were the abduction of the Saharawi activist Salem Maaleinin El-Sweed, on 01 May 2023 at nine o'clock in the evening, near an Algerian police checkpoint in the town of Tindouf, where he was accompanied by his sister Jufina Maalainin El-Sweed who was subjected to torture and ill-treatment at the hands of the Polisario before being taken to one of the secret detention centres set up by the Polisario in the Tindouf camps, where despite attempts by his relatives to find out his whereabouts is still unknown.

The abduction of activist Salem Maelainin Souid followed his participation, along with a large group of human rights defenders, in peaceful protests and the publication of videos on social networks denouncing the corrupt practices of some Polisario leaders involved in the theft and looting of humanitarian aid destined for the Saharawis in the camps and calling for the intervention of the World Organisation for Human Rights to put an end to the bleeding of the humanitarian aid with which the Polisario leadership trades in the neighbouring countries of southern Algeria, all with the support, care and complicity of the Algerian regime.

In the same context, ASIMCAT recorded the exposure of many Saharawis in the camps to injuries of varying severity committed by the Polisario militia who are accused of violating the night curfew that the leadership of the organisation insists on imposing for decades in a continuous humiliation of the residents of the camps, as is the case of the Saharawi activist Hanini Barki Sidi Labeid who was subjected to torture, on 27 April 2023 at 22:00 hours in the Rabuni camp by elements of the Polisario, which caused him serious physical and psychological damage, as well as the young woman, Elhassina Salem Ahmed Barikallah, niece of the former leader and opposition figure, Hajj Ahmed, who was brutally and unceremoniously abused and forcibly dragged away on the night of 30 March 2023, after the gendarmerie raided her family's home in Dakhla camp in order to arrest her brother on the pretext of not complying with night curfew orders.

This escalation of violence also included Saharawi bloggers such as Elouali Salek El Barbouchi, a member of the regional leadership of the Polisario Youth Union in Dakhla camp who was arrested on 21 March 2023 because of his publications on social media critical of Polisario policy and the Algerian authorities' handling of security problems in the camps before he was imprisoned in Al-Dheaibia prison, where he was forced by express orders of the "Minister of Interior", Maryam bint Al-Salik Hamada, to sign a fabricated indictment on charges of harbouring illegal immigrants and possessing gold mining equipment. 

A large group of women and men activists have been carrying out since 4 May a series of peaceful protests in front of the Polisario General Secretariat in Rabouni demanding the release of political detainees in Polisario's secret centres, as well as the accountability of the perpetrators involved in the abuses and torture suffered by the victims, however, these continued peaceful protests were met with further repression by the Polisario leadership who mobilised their armed groups to prevent the demonstrators from accessing the Secretariat building. All this is happening in the total absence of the UNHCR (High Commissioner for Refugees) whose offices in the camps do not play their role in the protection of the residents of these camps in contravention of the document that frames its protection mandate on what are supposed to be refugee camps.

The responsibility for all the violations committed against the Saharawis in the Tindouf refugee camps lies primarily with Algeria, under whose territorial jurisdiction these camps are located as they are located in its territory. The Polisario cannot continue to enjoy this impunity just because the host country protects it, provides it with all the conditions of immunity and continues without transparent judicial mechanisms to hold the perpetrators of the abuses accountable and to guarantee the victims their right to an effective remedy.

In the face of all these serious facts and our responsibility as an organisation advocating against impunity in the Tindouf camps, we draw the attention of international public opinion to the following: 

• To undertake all necessary measures to immediately release all detainees held in the Polisario's secret detention centres and to put an immediate end to the campaigns of repression and abuse against Saharawi activists in the Tindouf camps and to lift the curfew along with all other measures restricting the rights and freedoms of the Saharawis in these camps.           
• We urge the Algerian state to open a free and impartial judicial enquiry into all cases of extrajudicial executions, forced disappearances, arbitrary arrests and torture committed by the Polisario in its secret detention centres and to take the necessary legal measures to reveal the fate of the disappeared in the Polisario prisons, investigate the circumstances of their disappearance, hand over their remains to their families, provide reparation to the victims and their families and hold to account the Polisario leaders involved in these crimes, in order to ensure that the perpetrators do not go unpunished.     
• Ensuring that the Algerian state respects all its international obligations stipulated in the international covenants to which it is a party and that it implements all the UN resolutions issued in this respect, especially those issued by the UN Human Rights Committee, in which it urged Algeria to put an end to the illegal de facto delegation of jurisdictional competences to the Polisario Front.                            
• Urging the Algerian state to take all necessary measures to protect all persons on its territory, especially those in the Tindouf camps which have been transformed without any doubt into a big prison where rights and liberties are violated and where victims of extrajudicial executions and disappearances go unpunished.       
• Urge the High Commissioner for Refugees to activate his protection mandate for the benefit of the inhabitants of the Tindouf camps, and to provide all the guarantees to enable them to enjoy their rights and not to be subjected to any humiliating or degrading treatment, as provided for by international law.
• Call on the international human rights organisation to take urgent measures to put an end to the tragedy of the Saharawis in the camps and to follow up on all parties involved in the violations affecting them outside the law.