33 Countries of Origin’ Profiles

Produced by Euro-CIDES -FR- CAPTIVE/ JUST/2015/RDAP/AG/VICT/9243 Migrations https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXdJYbkdk1o After the Madrid Accords which transferred administration of the Spanish Sahara to Mauritania and Morocco in 1976, an exodus of refugees fled the violence that ensued, with substantial numbers ending up in the Polisario Front movement's base areas in the Algerian Sahara, where refugee camps were set up in the Tindouf Province, and a smaller number in camps in Mauritania. The camps in Tindouf were named after towns in the Western Sahara (Awserd, El-Aaiún, Smara and Dakhla). Algerian authorities have estimated the number of Sahrawi refugees in Algeria to be 165,000. For many years this figure was referred to by UNCHR, but in 2005 the organization reduced the number of "vulnerable refugees" to 90,000, until a census to determine the exact number of refugees in the camps could be done. The Moroccan government contends that the figure is much lower, around 45,000 to 50,000, and that these people are kept in the refugee camps against their will by Polisario. Mauritania houses about 26,000 Sahrawi refugees, classified by UNHCR as "people in a refugee-like situation". This population consists both of original refugees to the territory, and of former Tindouf dwellers who have since migrated to Mauritania. Additionally, between 3,000 and 12,000 Sahrawis live in Spain, the former colonizer. Today, the Saharawis are split into a number of populations: those living under Moroccan occupation in the Western Sahara, those living in the refugee camps in Algeria, and those living abroad in countries like Mauritania, Spain, Italy, Norway, Cuba, and the United States. Saharawis have once again become nomads, only this time, their paths take them across the globe rather than across the desert; and their quest is for freedom, rather than water for their herds. https://www.hrw.org/report/2014/10/18/radar/human-rights-tindouf-refugee-camps https://muse.jhu.edu/chapter/1068188 T he ideal Refugees