US committee for refugees skeptical about figure of 165,000 refugees living in tindouf camps

The US committee for refugees cast doubt on claims by Algerian authorities and Polisario leaders that there are 165,000 refugees in the camps of Tindouf (southwestern Algeria).

Algerian authorities and Polisario say there are 165,000 people currently living in the camps but are preventing, for political reasons, the High Commissioner for refugees (UNHCR) from conducting a census of the populations, the committee said in a survey issued Thursday.

The committee says like previous years, the real number of Sahrawis is still a matter of debate, estimating the actual number of "refugees" at nearly half of the figure put forward.

Meantime, the US refugees survey for 2003 has charged the Polisario, the Algeria-backed secessionist group, of embezzling human aid destined to Moroccan populations sequestered in Tindouf camps (in southwestern Algeria).

In its annual survey issued Thursday, the US committee for refugees reports that hundreds of donators "privately" urged for a control on food distribution to hinder any potential aid embezzlement by political and military leaders of the Polisario.

Several humanitarian organizations and Algerian papers have repeatedly denounced Polisario leaders' embezzlement of the aid extended to the sequestered populations in Tindouf camps.