Morocco calls UNHCR to shoulder responsibility of populations sequestered in Tindouf

Morocco's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Omar Hilal, said, on Friday, his country's call for the UN high commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to shoulder responsibility of populations sequestered in Tindouf (Algeria) aims to highlight Algiers responsibility in this issue.

Hilale, recalled in a statement to the national Radio, that Algeria has signed Geneva convention on refugee, whose provisions stipulate the opening of the camps to UNHCR missions.

Morocco, he said, has constantly noted, since the artificial conflict over the Sahara started, that the number of populations sequestered in the camps is false. It does not reflect reality since Algeria talks about 160,000 refugees, which is an exaggerated figure and far from reality, he stressed.

Morocco and Algeria are at loggerheads because Algeria's backing of the Polisario separatists in their claims over the Moroccan Sahara. Tindouf camps, in Algeria, are controlled by the Polisario secessionists.

Populations in Tindouf camps are not refugees but sequestered people, said Hilale, noting that Morocco has called on several times for bringing to a halt Algerian tricks.

These camps are militarized zones, located in enclosed regions of the Algerian territory, he explained, and access to these areas is allowed only to NGOs that support the Algerian government and Polisario thesis.

Hilale said he is stunned that Algerian authorities continue to reject Morocco's requests in this question and that they hinder UNHCR from making a census of populations in Tindouf.

Morocco is convinced that if UN organizations enter the camps they will find out that the number of people sequestered there is inferior to figures presented by Algiers, he pointed out.

He added that Morocco supports the pursuit of the exchange visit program that allowed people in Tindouf and their relatives in southern Morocco to meet after long years of separation because of the Sahara conflict.