29 Nov 2009
The UNHCR and their attitude to human rights and slavery.
I'd like to make you aware of the UN's position with regard to slavery in the camps and Western Sahara. Earlier this year we spent a month in New York showing the film to the UN departments with a connection to the refugee camps, UNHCR in particular. We showed the film to the UNHCR NY office and the Deputy Director of UNHCR New York, Wei-Meng Lim-Kabaa. Several days later, after she'd liaised with head office in Geneva, her reaction was to suggest various strategies that could be implemented to address slavery. We presented them with a list and photos of everyone we met in the camps. Several months went by when we recieved this email on 10 July 2009.
"...we have never received any information from the camps' communities or individual refugees that slavery or practices similar to slavery have taken place.
Had that been the case, UNHCR would have raised it with the Polisario representatives and would have put in place mechanisms aiming at the eradication of such practices."
Sincerely,
Radhouane Nouicer
Director
Bureau for the Middle East and North Africa
We told them about our findings in Geneva and in the camps and had asked them to come and meet Matala and his friends back in 2007.
Ahmed Salem Amr Khaddad
December 21 2009
Another issue has to make the UNHCR very concerned. FYI, the UNHCR has never been allowed to make a census of the sahraouis living in Tindouf camps. Could you imagine this? Polisario Front leaders and Algerian officials have never allowed the UNHCR to make it. That's why the UNHCR aids are based on approximative figures. Algeria and Polisario Front leaders mention that they are about 165.000 people while the UNHCR stated that they must be largely less than 90.000 people. This figure was established on satellite views basis. Please do your best to make pressure on the UNHCR : why no census?in such case, why calling them refugees if they don't have UNHCR refugee IDs as all the refugees in the world.
Thanks
Ahmed Salem Amr Khaddad