Sahrawi refugee camps
[1][2] The limited opportunities for self-reliance in the harsh desert environment have forced the refugees to rely on international humanitarian assistance for their survival.
The refugee camps are governed by Polisario, being administratively part of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).
[5] Local committees distribute basic goods, water and food, while "daïra" authorities made up by the representatives of the "hays" organize schools, cultural activities and medical services.
Some argue that this results in a form of basic democracy on the level of camp administration, and that this has improved the efficiency of aid distribution.
[9] While the Algerian military has a significant presence in the nearby city of Tindouf, Algeria insists that responsibility for human rights in the camps lies with the Polisario.
[2] Polisario has prioritized education from the beginning,[7] and the local authorities have established 29 preschools, 31 primary and seven secondary schools, the academic institutions of ‘27 February’ and ‘12 October’ as well as various technical training centers (without forgetting that Tindouf campements count 90.000 refugees) .
Summer temperatures in this part of the hammada, historically known as "The Devil's Garden", are often above 50°C and frequent sandstorms disrupt normal life.
[3] With the rise of a basic market economy, some refugees have been able to acquire television sets and use cars; several hundred satellite dishes have popped up in recent years.
[17] The WFP has repeatedly expressed its concern over a shortage of donations, and warned of dire health consequences if needs are not met.
[21] In October 2015, heavy rainfalls flooded the refugee camps again, destroying houses (made of sand-bricks), tents and food provisions.
[citation needed] It argues that this will help activate the refugee population, to avoid a sense of stagnation and hopelessness after 30 years in exile.
[citation needed] However, jobs remain scarce and those Sahrawis educated at universities abroad can rarely if ever find opportunities to use their skills.
[citation needed] A simple monetary economy began developing in the camps during the 1990s, after Spain decided to pay pensions to Sahrawis who had been forcibly drafted as soldiers in the Tropas Nómadas during the colonial time.
[25] Since the Polisario Front and Morocco are still at war, visits between the camps and the Moroccan-controlled parts of Western Sahara are virtually impossible, with the Moroccan Wall hindering movement through Western Sahara, and the Algeria–Morocco border closed added to the restriction on movement by the Polisario on the camps population.
[citation needed] The Polisario Front has acknowledged reports of mistreatment in the seventies and eighties, but deny the accusations of on-going abuse.
The three hostages were two Spanish citizens (Enric Gonyalons and Ainhoa Fernández de Rincón) and an Italian woman (Rossella Urru); all members of humanitarian NGOs.
[33] At first, Brahim Ghali, SADR ambassador in Algiers, said that Al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb (AQMI) was responsible for this incident.
[38] They were set free by the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MOJWA) in Gao, Mali on the 18th of July 2012, being transferred to Burkina Faso and later to Spain.
[39] Poets Hadjatu Aliat Swelm and Hussein Moulud have written about life at the Gdeim Izik protest camp.
