A Spanish NGO denounces the Polisario Front's "Holidays in peace" programme
The NGO La Libertad es Su Derecho (Freedom is Their Right), made up of Spanish host families of women kidnapped in the Saharawi camps in Tindouf (Algeria), denounced in an event organised by the Women's Association of Callosa de Segura that the "Vacaciones en Paz" (Holidays in Peace) programme for minors of Saharawi origin, promoted by the Polisario Front, "violates in single file all the articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Declaration of the Rights of the Child".
The spokesperson for the association, Elisa Pavón, pointed out that "so far this year there have already been four new cases of women kidnapped and, furthermore, proceedings have been opened in an Asturian court for the accusation against 22 members of the Polisario, some of them high ranking, for crimes of trafficking in human beings and falsification of documents in Spain", according to declarations reported by Información.
During a talk held at the headquarters of the Cooperativa Eléctrica de Callosa de Segura under the title "The indelible traces of Holidays in Peace", the speakers talked about the "deconstruction" of the programme and its consequences, starting with the definition of the programme by the State Coordination of Associations in Solidarity with the Sahara (CEAS Sahara).
This organisation describes Vacaciones en paz "as a political and social awareness programme with the aim of transmitting to the Spanish public and public authorities the urgency of resolving the situation in Western Sahara in a just and definitive manner", using children, who are called "ambassadors of the cause".
However, according to Pavón, "it is no longer a humanitarian or solidarity programme, but has become a mere business of the Polisario and the solidarity movement, which systematically fail to comply with the instructions for the authorisation of temporary residence permits for minors contained in Decree Law 557/2011, which details the legal procedure for summer hostings, as well as using minors as tools for carrying out political propaganda work, which is one of the meanings of child soldiers".
The most recent evidence of this non-compliance, according to Pavón, is the case of the abduction of the 9-year-old Mohamed Mohamed Lamin. Lamin was abducted by his biological family in Spain and transferred to the Tindouf camps after 18 months in Spain and while he was undergoing medical treatment and awaiting further surgery.
The foster mother of this young man of Sahrawi origin, Nieves González, took Mohamed in when she saw an advert in a WhatsApp status requesting foster families for 11 minors from Vacaciones en Paz who were at Malaga airport and were going to be returned to the camps.
"When she called to ask about the requirements, the Association of Sanlúcar de Barrameda only told her that she had to give them a good summer with lots of love and send her ID card to request the certificate of not being on the Register of Sexual Offences," explained the spokesperson. "They did not sign any document nor was any other procedure carried out except to give the OK via WhatsApp", she adds.
With an undocumented minor in her care, without the right to obtain a health card and with an infection that caused deafness in one ear, Nieves González confronted the association and the Polisario in Andalusia, demanding the identification of the child. This battle lasted 15 months, until the child's biological father, resident in Spain, appeared and requested the exercise of a right to "weekend visitation with his own son".
After denouncing the ill-treatment to which the child was being subjected by his own father, the facts were brought to the attention of the National Police and the Prosecutor's Office for Minors, which led to Nieves being declared "persona non grata by the Polisario" and to the father fleeing Spain and the biological mother's brother taking Mohamed to the camps, without his belongings. Nieves has never been able to communicate with the child again, according to the NGO.
On the other hand, Bienvenida Campillo, addressed the consequences of the Vacaciones en Paz programme, especially those referring to the kidnapping of women who have been fostered for years by Spanish families and who, when they turn 18, "become useful again for the Polisario, which promotes, protects and protects the practice of kidnapping so that they can have children and continue to feed their political cause and their business".
Campillo, who is a councillor for Izquierda Unida in San Miguel de Salinas, denounced that her foster daughter, Koria, has been "kidnapped" for 13 years. The councillor explained that "Vacaciones en Paz has as its main consequence the generation of victims of human rights violations, but not only minors and adult women held against their will, but it also leads to the destructuring of the host families and their entire environment, which suffers an absence with immense pain, frustration and impotence".
Campillo also stated, for the first time publicly, that the reason why the Polisario has prevented Koria's return to Spain for 13 years is because "her father was a jailer in Rachid, the most feared prison in the camps, and later, until his death, he was responsible for the coordination of illicit trafficking networks in the area of the Sahara under Polisario control". Campillo said that "even though knowing that he was going to die of cancer, he had the little shame to marry her off days before to ensure captivity".
Campillo expressed her gratitude for the expressions of support and affection received on Koria's behalf and defended "the blind confidence that Koria is strong enough, constant and persevering enough to find, at some point, a way to return to Spain". "We have confidence in her and we will not stop fighting for her freedom so that she can fully exercise her rights, like all the other kidnapped women and men", she concluded.
