Join on WhatsApp
Join on Telegram
Rabat – Omar Hilale, Morocco’s permanent ambassador to the UN, repeated this week his concerns about the degrading treatment of children in the Polisario-run Tindouf camps in Algeria.
The Moroccan diplomat made his remarks this time in an interview with the News Looks magazine.
In the interview, which was published on Wednesday, Hilale spoke at length about Poilisario’s persistent disregard for international conventions on children’s rights through its continuous recruitment of child soldiers.
“Despite all this international legal framework and calls for action, the children of the Tindouf camps continue to be forced to take part in military trainings, [and are] subjugated to all forms of exploitation and abuse by the ‘Polisario’ militia, under the indifferent eyes of the host country, Algeria, and in total defiance to the international Community,” he said.
Hilale argued that the international community must prevent the Polisario Front and the host country of the group’s camps, Algeria, from transforming the children in the camps into “the terrorists of tomorrow.”
The Moroccan diplomat emphasized that both Polisario’s recruitment of children in Tindouf camps and Algeria’s support for and encouraging of such a behavior constitute a “war crime” and a blatant violation of all international conventions on the rights of children.
Tindouf camps’ children’s place is in schools not military training zones, Hilale emphasized.
“They deserve to go to school and get the qualifications and skills needed to build a successful and brighter future. They deserve a peaceful and prosperous future,” he said.
Hilale said Algeria’s regime does not allow human rights NGOs and associations to visit the region because it does not want them to witness the inhumane conditions in the Polisario-controlled camps.
He also accused the Algerian regime of encouraging and participating in violations against children.
“It has done nothing to end them,” he said of Algeria’s approval of Polisario’s recruitment of child soldiers.
Beyond the violation of children’s rights, the Moroccan diplomat pointed to well-documented reports of other forms of mistreatment and violations that Sahrawis live under in the Polisario-run zones in Algeria.
“Two persons from the Tindouf camps were killed by Algerian security forces in October 2020,” Hilale said, adding that a similar murder case took place this week on November 21.
“Unfortunately, this is neither the first nor will it be the last time. Indeed, Algeria is responsible and directly involved in all the egregious violations in the Tindouf camps,” he said.
Hilale’s comments are the latest of several similar reports and remarks by diplomats, activists, and NGOs who have all equally denounced the deteriorating living conditions in the Tindouf camps.
Just recently, many social media users launched a hashtag, calling on the UN and other international bodies to intervene to rescue children from exploitation in the Tindouf camps.
The hashtag, “save the children of Tindouf camps,” is still viral, with many sharing pictures of child soldiers in Tindouf wearing military uniforms and holding rifles they can barely carry.
Read Also: Sahrawi Activist Calls on Morocco to Facilitate Return of Sahrawis from Tindouf Camps
