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Rabat – Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called upon UN’s chief Ban Ki-moon to intervene in order to free the three Sahrawi women held against their will in Tindouf camps, during his upcoming visit to the Camps, located in Southwestern Algeria.
On the visit of the United Nations Secretary General Mr Ban Ki Moon to the Tindouf Camps on Friday, March 4, HRW released a statement on Friday, calling UN’s chief to urge the Polisario Front, which runs Tindouf camps, to intervene in favor of three captives.
Executive director of HRW’s Middle East and North Africa Division, Sarah Leah described holding the adult women as “illegal”, even though the captors are their relatives.
“Holding an adult against her will is illegal confinement, whether or not the captors are relatives who love her,” she said.
“The Polisario should ensure these women can exercise their freedom of movement and that past and future acts of illegal confinement are punished as crimes,” she added.
The three women, namely Maloma Morales de Matos, Darya Embarek Selma and Nadjiba Mohamed Kacem, hold a Spanish citizenship. They spent more than half of their lives in Spain, but were held against their will when they visited their families in the camps.
A previous report by Spanish daily El Mondo said Maloma, 22, who used to live in the Andalusian town of Mairena del Aljarafe with her adoptive family, was kidnapped last December in the camps.
On December 5, Maloma accompanied with her adoptive father traveled to Tindouf camps to visit her biological mother who was suffering from a disease”, El Mundo noted, adding that the father José Morales was forced to leave Tindouf camps and return to Spain without his young daughter.
Darya and Nadjiba, on the other hand, have been held in the camps since 2013, after their families prevented them from returning to Spain. In a text message sent to HRW on February 29, Nadjiba “confirmed that she had made clear that she wished to return to Spain without delay and had no agreement with her family to stay.”
