Tindouf Refugee Camps

In 1973, a group of indigenous Sahrawi university students in Morocco established the Polisario Front, a nationalist liberation group with the goal of establishing an independent state in Western Sahara. Later that year, they began an armed rebellion against Spanish colonization in Western Sahara, instigating two years of guerrilla warfare. After facing pressure from the UN to decolonize in 1974, Spain withdrew from Western Sahara and transferred administrative power to Morocco and Mauritania, who split and annexed the territory. The Polisario Front, wanting an independent Sahrawi state in the region, began resisting the Moroccan and Mauritanian governments, and Western Sahara War began. Shortly after, the Polisario Front formed the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) in Western Sahara. 

After nearly twenty years of war, the conflict transitioned to civilian resistance in 1991, although the SADR declared war again in 2020 after accusing Morocco of violating a ceasefire agreement. The SADR, governed by the Polisario Front, is currently recognized by 47 UN member states and controls around 20 percent of Western Sahara, with Morocco holding the remaining territory. The United Nations considers Morocco and the Polisario Front the main parties to the conflict, with both sides claiming a right to the territory. Algeria has continued to dedicate attention on the national stage toWestern Sahara by supporting the Sahrawi right to self-determination and accusing Morocco of using the conflict to advance geopolitical interests.

Today, thousands of Sahrawis who were displaced in the original Western Sahara War remain in refugee camps and cannot return home. Most Sahrawi refugees live in the Tindouf Camps — a network of five compounds administered by the Polisario Front near the Algerian city of Tindouf.. The camps currently house approximately 165,000 people, down from  the 300,000 throughout the 1980s. The Polisario Front conducts government operations in the camps rather than Western Sahara, and the camps include a basic level of democratic organization, a strong education system, and a justice system with courts and prisons. However, camp authorities have faced numerous allegations of human rights abuse, and the Algerian government has inhibited entry of human rights organizations except a select few. 

In 2013, Human Rights Watch issued an extensive report on the Tindouf Camps after being approved for a two-week research visit. They identified several areas of concern for the camps, including arbitrary detentions, physical abuse while in detention, a lack of free and fair trials, and slavery that was ignored by authorities for several years. The Freedom and Progress Association, a civil society organization based in the Tindouf camps, released a report documenting at least 10 current cases of race-based slavery in the camps. Additionally, the Moroccan government and Polisario Front have refused to atone for past human rights violations committed during the military stage of Western Sahara War. Human Rights Watch stated that both sides fail to acknowledge most past wrongdoings and have not removed offenders from leadership positions. 

Additionally, in 2020, Amnesty International called on the United Nations to include a human rights component in the UN Mission for Referendum in Western Sahara — an annually-renewed mandate that is the only modern UN peacekeeping mission without human rights conditions attached. In their statement, Amnesty cited the Moroccan government’s expulsion of journalists and peaceful activists from the camps as well as restrictions on freedom of expression and assembly. 

In 2022, the international community brought attention to the situation in the Tindouf camps at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva. The United States delegation, led by Bathsheba Nell Crocker, voiced concern for laws restricting freedom of assembly and expression as well as the practice of arbitrary arrests. Shortly after, the UN heard direct testimony from two Sahrawi human rights activists and residents of the camps, Aicha Duihi and El Fadel Brikel. Duihi highlighted repression of free speech, violence, threats and discrimination that the Algerian government justifies as counterterrorism measures. Brikel alleged psychological and physical torture in prisons connected to the Tindouf camps and recalled the murders of several Tindouf camp residents, which he believes the Algerian government is responsible for. 

Additionally, Brikel purported that the Polisario Front is embezzling humanitarian funding. The UN recently reported that food rations have decreased by 75 percent in the camps despite ongoing international assistance, and the amount of money that Polisario forces say is required for food supplies has doubled in the past two years. This discrepancy has caused a sharp rise in malnutrition and life threatening-health issues among children in the camps. 

Amnesty International at Sciences Po Menton calls on the international community to thoroughly explore the situation in the Tindouf camps — investigating and documenting alleged human rights abuses, ensuring that humanitarian aid helps the people of the camps rather than wealthy government officials, and addressing solutions for the Tindouf camps through diplomacy with Morocco and Algeria. To read recent political and humanitarian developments from the Tindouf camps, visit tindouf.org.