Geneva: NGOs condemn serious human rights violations in Tindouf camps

Two NGOs condemned, on Tuesday in Geneva, the serious human rights violations in the Tindouf camps, located in southwestern Algeria.

“The African Network for Development, Governance and Human Rights” (RADHEG) criticized “the silence of the international community about the atrocities committed with impunity against the sahrawis in the Tindouf camps, under the control of the ‘polisario’ armed militias and the Algerian army.”

“The latter commit the worst atrocities against these populations, particularly the human rights advocates and activists on social networks who dare to expose the crimes committed by these militias, including extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearance, rape, child soldier recruitment, slavery, and humanitarian aid embezzlement,” RADHEG pointed out during the general debate on the global update of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, held as part of the 55th session of the Human Rights Council (HRC).

The NGO expressed its concern that “despite these grave violations committed in camps on Algerian soil, none of the two Special Rapporteurs who visited the country in 2023 bothered to pay the slightest attention to the serious situation of these populations held hostage on Algerian territory.”

For its part, NGO “Il Cenacolo” denounced the persistent complicity of Algeria, the host state of the “polisario”, which turns a blind eye to the serious human rights violations committed against the inhabitants of the Tindouf camps, as well as “the failure of UN mechanisms, in particular the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, to implement its protection mandate under the Geneva Convention.”

“The sahrawi refugees, who live in five camps surrounded by the Algerian army, are facing the most brutal forms of repression carried out by the ‘polisario’ leadership and the Algerian army, which systematically resort to extrajudicial killings,” it deplored.

“Enforced disappearance is one of the means most used by the ‘polisario’ torturers to silence any voices daring to denounce the serious violations committed by the militias,” according to the same source.

The NGO called on the international community “to exert pressure on Algeria to shoulder its responsibility for the crimes committed on its territory by its army and the separatist polisario militias against the sahrawis, and to reveal the fate of the disappeared and bring the perpetrators to justice.”