By Pablo Molina Asensi
Despite the challenges posed by almost five decades of displacement, the Tindouf camps still represent something unique – the existence of an independent refugee state in exile.
Credit: US Mission/Rome Humanitarian Attaché
After over 45 years in exile, the Sahrawi refugee camps in Tindouf province, Algeria, have come to represent something of a strange contradiction.
Existing in a largely inhospitable and resource-poor region of the Algerian desert, the camps have very little in the way of economic opportunity and are largely dependent on international aid for their survival.
Nevertheless, the Sahrawi refugee camps also embody a rare example of refugee independence. Rather than being subject to the authority of the Algerian host government or the UNHCR, the Sahrawi camps operate as almost completely independent enclaves of the SADR, the partially recognized state that controls the portion of Western Sahara not occupied by Morocco.
The Tindouf camps face many of the same shortages and lack of resources typical of a long-term displaced community. According to the UN World Food Programme, 88 percent of the camps’ population is either food insecure or at risk of food insecurity, and 52 percent of Sahrawi refugee women between the ages of 15 and 49 suffer from anemia. Oxfam reports that Sahrawi refugees receive only an average of twelve liters of water per person a day, below the UNHCR’s target of 20.
Independent economic activity is limited in the camps, with jobs for the refugee population being hard to come by. Mahjoub Mleiha, a Sahrawi human rights activist raised in the Moroccan-controlled part of Western Sahara, and Head of the External Relations Committee at CODESA, one of the most important human rights NGOs in Western Sahara, visited the camps in 2015, and confessed to having experienced what he called “difficult moments.” Mleiha described “watching kids play, some of them looked not really in a very good shape. You can easily see that the nutritions are not what it’s supposed to be for children, and for the elders as well.” He also remarked on how, despite efforts by Sahrawi authorities to maintain the camps’ water tanks, “they will never be up to the medical standards we have in Europe or anywhere else.”
Mahjoud said that, during his visit to the camps, he was able to see firsthand the economic scarcity that is part of daily life in exile, “Work is almost not there, of course, there are some youths who try to work as taxi drivers, taking people from camp to camp for tiny small, amounts of money. There are others who make the brick blocks for building. Some who trade in camels with other neighboring countries, but we cannot really talk about an economical system in the refugee camps.”
As one major explanation of the poverty in the refugee camps, Mahjoud pointed to the decision by Sahrawi authorities to not exploit the natural resources of the territory it controls until Morocco withdraws from the occupied territories, adding “Do we agree with that decision or not? That’s a very long discussion. But I can say that work opportunities are very limited in the camps.”
The Polisario Front is aware of and open about the economic circumstances of the refugee camps. “Due to the nature of the camps, economic movement is very limited, as they depend for almost anything on humanitarian aid, on the Algerian and Mauritanian markets”, said Fatma Mehdi, the SADR’s Minister for Cooperation. Mehdi points out, however, that the refugees have been able to engage in some degree of economic activity, saying that the challenge “has not kept the Sahrawis from building up an economy that, despite being limited, can respond to the needs of the population and at the same time offers jobs to the people (even if they are with low salaries).”
Mehdi also said that the SADR offers public sector jobs for people to work as teachers, doctors, and public servants, even as she acknowledges that the Sahrawi government cannot pay people much and that these jobs are seen as “almost volunteer positions.” She also pointed to projects by outside organizations and Sahrawi entrepreneurs which help create jobs in the camps.
“Having this in mind”, she adds “it is important to remember that due to the general situation of the camps and the geographical area where they are found, the unemployment rate is quite high.”
Dr. Jacob Mundy, Director of the Peace and Conflict Studies program at Colgate University, also pointed out the economic difficulties that the refugee camps have faced, saying that “There’s not a lot of jobs for people to do. In the Polisario administration or something like that, obviously, I think there are more military jobs open now than there previously was. One of the chronic issues is always figuring out “how can we keep the youth busy, what kind of jobs can we give people to make their lives less boring, more fulfilling?”
Mundy also commented, however, on the economic activity that does take place in the camps, pointing to growth starting in the 1990s, the cash provided by children returning from the Spanish Vacaciones en Paz program, and the existence of merchants connecting the corridor between Tindouf and the northern Mauritanian town of Zouérat.
“In the camps themselves you have independent economic activity, you have food stalls, you have car maintenance, shops, things like that, where people can buy goods and trade goods, things of that sort. There’s also the fundamental base of refugee food assistance, and things like that, so every person is guaranteed 2,000 calories a day,” said Mundy.
According to Mundy, long-term exile without the prospect of a return to an independent Western Sahara has forced the Sahrawi people and Polisario authorities to adapt their economy to be better suited to the permanent nature of the camps, as he said that “The biggest change since the end of the war since the 1980s is that the camps are often like small cities, in some way, because they have so much independent economic activity going on.”
One of the areas in which the refugee camps have shown remarkable progress is in providing education to refugee children and youth. Mehdi said that this is due to education having been one of the POLISARIO’S priorities during the 47 years spent in exile.
“The number of Sahrawis that have finished their education and have college degrees is quite high, there are schools and educational centers in all the dairas (towns) and primary and secondary education are mandatory, additionally, in every daira there is a nursery for children under the age of six. On top of that, there are also special education centers for people with special needs in every wilaya [district],” she said.
While the camps only have primary and secondary school centers, Mehdi said that through agreements with countries like Algeria, Cuba, Venezuela, and Spain, students can travel abroad to continue their studies.
Mleiha also spoke to the level of education available in the camps, saying that, based on his visit, he could confirm that the refugee population had “free access to schooling, primary, and secondary school, and then the Algerians are providing major support for high education, for university education and higher.”
Mleiha said that, compared to youth living in the territory occupied by Morocco, he found young Sahrawis in the refugee camps to be better educated. “I cannot say why or how, because I don’t know what’s the structure, “ he added “but I can judge that the education level is higher in the refugee camps. Maybe because in the occupied territories it is more expensive to access, there is no university nearby, if you want to go to university, you have to spend a lot of money, which the majority of Sahrawis doesn’t have in the occupied territories.”
Mleiha said that, in his experience, all the elderly people in the camps can read and write, and are capable of arguing and engaging in political discussions, which he said, “you cannot find in any African country.”
The limited opportunity in the camp means that many outside groups organize projects in the camps to support their population. Mehdi said that UNHCR has a permanent presence and an office in the camps, and that “in fact, UNHCR supports many of the projects in vital sectors.” Mehdi also referred to DG ECHO (Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations), the EU’s foreign humanitarian aid department, “and over 40 NGOs that operate in different sectors that, incoordination with Sahrawi authorities, implement their projects with total normalcy.”
Credit: ECHO
An organization that is very present in the camps is CEAS-Sahara (State Coordinator of Associations in Solidarity with the Sahara, in Spanish), an umbrella group that coordinates pro-Sahrawi civil society groups across Spain. According to Xavier Serra, president of CEAS-Sahara, the group’s activity in the camps consist of three main activities. The first one is visits by Spanish families, “This is part of the Vacaciones en Paz project, in fact, even if it is not the project itself, but normally the families that host Sahrawi boys and girls, once they have hosted the children, they usually take […] a trip to the camps to meet the family of the boy or girl that they have hosted, and to see the child in their own territory. This has been normal since the beginning of the project and was one of the aspects that were broken during the pandemic and that is now being recovered," he said.
A second common activity is political trips. On October 12 of 2021, in commemoration of the Sahrawi Day of National Unity, CEAS-Sahara organized the first such trip since the outbreak of the pandemic, which Serra said included many journalists, political representatives, and members of the umbrella group’s constituent associations. Serra said that the trip had two main objectives “the first one was that of breaking the isolation of the camps due to the pandemic, and the second one was to show, especially to the press, the situation of the camps, and the situation of open war with Morocco.”
The third of CEAS-Sahara’s main activities consist of trips related to projects being carried out by its member organizations. Serra said that these projects are very diverse, “from projects that have to do with training, projects that have to do with construction, to projects that have to do with food, healthcare, education.”
CEAS-Sahara’s flagship program, Vacaciones en Paz, allows Sahrawi children to spend their summer holidays with host families in Spain, which often leads to long-term informal relationships between the Spanish host family and the child’s family in the camps. “Obviously, not all families react the same way,” says Serra. “There are families that host a Sahrawi boy or girl and never have any other sort of relation with the topic or with the family of the child they have hosted. There is a second group of families […] which, based on the fact that the Sahrawi children themselves see the host family as their fathers and mothers […] the Sahrawi family will also see you as part of their family. Because of that, if there is a trip to the camps and one meets the family, the interaction takes place as if you were a member of the Sahrawi family.” Serra also said that this relationship can serve as the basis for further support, from financial help to the Sahrawi families to allowing Sahrawi youths to pursue their secondary or university studies in Spain. Additionally, Serra explained that the Spanish family’s participation in the Vacaciones en Paz program is often a gateway to them formally joining an association in solidarity with the Sahrawi people and engaging in political activism.
Serra also explained that, even though CEAS-Sahara attempts to educate families in the specifics of the program, there are sometimes situations where a Spanish family will not understand that they are not adopting the child, which can lead to tense situations. Serra says, however, that “this last group, is, truthfully, a small minority.”
Beyond the presence of organizations like CEAS-Sahara, the largest and most recognizable outside actor operating in the camps is the UNHCR. However, the low visibility of the wider struggle of the Sahrawi people contributes to funding being well below the required levels, with the UNHCR experiencing severe shortages in its funding for Algeria. According to a funding update published on April 12, the UNHCR has only received enough funds to cover 12 percent of its 2022 financial requirements in Algeria.
Nevertheless, despite their economic hardships and their reliance on outside support, the Sahrawi refugee camps retain a degree of autonomy rarely seen by other refugee communities. According to Mundy, “the refugee camps are self-managed, which is fairly unique in global refugee situations. Since 1976, the arrangement that was established with Algeria and international aid agencies was that a body would be created called the Sahrawi Red Crescent, and that would be the humanitarian organization that would direct efforts so that instead of the camps being managed by a UN agency or some non-governmental organization, those bodies would be treated as partners.”
Mundy also said that self-management was important to legitimize the existence of a Sahrawi state and that the initial importance of women in leadership positions was a key aspect of the Polisario’s international image. In regards to the relationship between the Polisario and their Algerian allies, Mundy says that “the relationship that was established was that, more or less, Algeria would kind of be hands-off in terms of day-to-day life in the refugee camps.”
From Mundy’s perspective, however, the Sahrawi and Algerian authorities are more coordinated in matters in which they share a common concern regarding the wider conflict with Morocco, “I don’t imagine that, on a day-to-day basis, Algeria is consulting with Polisario on its military operations, but I imagine that it would be very difficult for Polisario to maintain military operations without Algerian logistical equipment.”
In general, however, Mundy says that the Polisario exercises a great degree of independence, saying that “one of my favorite cases was that, about 20 years ago, Polisario kind of wanted to go back to war, because the referendum had been basically canceled and they were quite frustrated, and it took quite high-level intervention from the Algerians not to do that.”
This outlook is shared by both Algerian and Sahrawi authorities. Minister Medhi said that “there is no presence of Algerian authorities in the camps, and it is the Polisario and the SADR who take charge of security and the management of all aspects of life.”
According to Ahmed Boutache, Algeria’s ambassador to the United States, the Sahrawi authorities are fully in charge of the camps, with Algeria not intervening in any way in their day-to-day running. Rather, according to Boutache, “what we do is extending moral support, political support, especially at the level of the international community.”
This situation runs afoul of the perspective promoted by Morocco, with Mundy saying that Morocco talks about the refugees “as prisoners, in these Polisario concentration camps.” He also said that “Morocco paints this picture of Polisario as being puppets of Algeria with no independent decision-making capacity, but it’s actually a relationship where, to a degree, Algeria and Polisario try to treat each other as nation-states.”
While the relationship between the largest nation in Africa, with a huge military and economy, and a refugee nation of 200,000 is very asymmetric, Mundy says that it remains important for both the SADR and Algeria to “live as if Western Sahara is independent, for Algeria to treat Polisario as an independent state authority.”
Despite the challenges faced by the camps’ population, their continued independence means that, to many Sahrawis, they remain a physical reminder of their hope for a sovereign Sahrawi state. Describing his 2015 visit to the camps, Mahjoud Mleiha says that the first thing that pulled his attention was the proud display of the Sahrawi flag, something shocking to someone used to life in the occupied territories. “You come, and there is poles holding beautiful flags, the wind is making them look more beautiful,” he describes, “and then it gives me kind of a feeling of “Yeah, here we are. We have a state, we have a country! We exist!”
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