The Canarian Saharawi Forum calls for greater control of non-repayable institutional aid in Tindouf

In relation to the recent news of the institutional declaration made by the Parliament of La Rioja, endorsing the text issued by the members of the 'Peace and Freedom in Western Sahara' conference after their participation in the annual conference of Parliamentary Intergroups for the Sahara held in Asturias, this Canarian Saharawi Forum would like to state the following:

There are many issues with which we disagree in relation to the content of this statement, such as the fact that three years later there is once again a soporific insistence on the “disagreement with the radical change in position of the President of the Spanish Government with regard to Western Sahara”. We would like to point out that this change of position is not just a Spanish thing. In the EU alone, 20 out of 27 countries, with governments of different ideologies, have already supported this proposal. As well as many other important countries. There must be a reason for this.

But we want to focus on one part in particular. Specifically, the section of the declaration calling for increased economic support, cooperation and humanitarian aid for the Saharawi population. In this sense, we consider that accountability is a basic and necessary obligation in any serious democracy that prides itself on being such. In Spain, access to substantial aid of this kind has its requirements, in addition to the monitoring mechanism that corresponds in each case. As a general rule, aid is rigorously controlled in this country, but there is a strange and onerous exception: aid sent to the Sahara.

Aid, whether monetary or in kind, about which, once delivered to its destination, little is heard of again, its management or distribution. We believe it is shameful that large amounts of non-repayable funds and materials continue to be handed over to the Polisario leaders who manage them, with no greater control or monitoring than the exercise of faith that they will be put to good use, naively assuming that they will reach those who really need them, the population, with complete transparency.

It is worth reminding institutions (local, regional or national) that act in this way with public money that this way of proceeding, where it is not reliably justified how, when and to whom the funds have been allocated once they reach their destination, is far removed from the basic standards established in any respectable administration. If it is not allowed to do so here, it is unethical to allow it anyway, knowing that the aid could be lost along the way or once it has been delivered. Given that, obviously, the Polisario has no control mechanism in this respect and does not propose to establish one. They give the orders, they make the decisions, they distribute the aid according to arbitrary criteria that are never explained. And all this is done knowing that there are precedents of corruption and diversion of aid for personal gain that invite caution and scrutiny in this regard:

• In 2015, the European Commission's European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) published a report accusing the Polisario Front of embezzling and selling humanitarian aid destined for Saharawi refugees in the Tindouf camps. The investigation, which covered the period 2003-2007, revealed that part of the food aid was diverted and sold in markets in Algeria, Mauritania and Mali. The report detailed how significant quantities of food were stolen before being distributed to the refugees. Although the OLAF report does not specify an exact amount defrauded, a subsequent complaint filed with the Spanish Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office estimated that the fraud was around 20 million euros.
• The lack of accountability on the part of the Polisario and its constant “negligence” are directly related to the request of the UN Security Council to humanitarian organizations in the administration of aid, and were reflected in Resolution 2654 of October 2022 concerning the Sahara issue: “The delivery of humanitarian aid must be carried out in accordance with UN good practice”, due to the regular and repeated diversion of such aid for personal gain with the connivance of the Polisario. This diversion was confirmed in several reports by the High Commissioner for Refugees, which also accused the Polisario of artificially inflating the number of refugees to receive more aid. They systematically refuse to take a census of the population, and aid is granted according to population data. The more population, the more aid; the more aid, the more diversion and, therefore, more corruption.
• On the other hand, there are endless examples that have occurred over decades in different Spanishadministrations in relation to what we are asking for in this communiqué. To give just one: In 2010 it was denounced at the UN that 10 million euros were going to be allocated to the Polisario Front for the “improvement of public transport in the Tindouf camps”. To repeat, public transport in Tindouf, 10 million euros over 10 years. In 2017, the Cabildo of Gran Canaria donated one million euros in gofio (a typical Canarian food) in a controversial ad hoc deal to the Polisario Front as humanitarian aid. Likewise, last month, the Spanish Congress of Deputies approved a non-binding proposal from Sumar urging the socialist wing of the Executive to provide an extraordinary humanitarian aid fund of 10 million euros for the Tindouf camps. What control was, is or will be exercised over the use of these funds?

Finally, we don't want to forget something that, although recent, is still going on and is indirectly related. We are referring to the bill for 45,658 euros that Brahim Ghali, supreme leader of the Polisario Front, left unpaid in the place where they saved his life, the San Pedro Hospital in Logroño. As we said at the time, it was a 'sinpa' (failure to pay) of biblical proportions, close to 50,000 euros, which has an impact on the taxes of all citizens and which some politicians deliberately concealed. 

A scam perpetrated against SERIS that we consider unacceptable and a mockery of the transparency that should govern our administrations and on which we are focusing throughout this communiqué. This example from their boss, Brahim Ghali, is quite revealing in this respect. If they did this here, they won't do it there. It is one thing for the population to suffer the rigors and hardships of the camps, and another for their ruling class to live at ease without lacking anything, and they are hardly victims. And here we do not know how to distinguish one thing from the other while we continue to send aid that who knows how, and if it reaches, the most needy, due to the number of hands it passes through.

Our political class, on one side or the other of the ideological spectrum, obsessed with maintaining tensions and controversies with our neighbor to the south, seems to be deliberately looking the other way or, even worse, unaware of and even approving of what is happening on the next border, that of the Algerian military dictatorship and its protégé, the Polisario Front.

We believe that it is time to put an end to these double standards and demand the same level of observance from everyone in all matters. In the case of this communiqué, to prevent corruption related to the money and aid that leave here for the Tindouf camps