afrol News, 29 June - A project for Sahrawi refugees to visit their families in occupied Western Sahara is proving "extremely popular". As many Sahrawi refugees have lived in the Algerian camps for 30 years, already a third generation of refugees is born in exile.

The UN's refugee agency UNHCR today announced that it successfully has started its "family visits pilot project" that is to take more than 800 participants from the refugee camps in the Algerian desert to visit relatives in Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara. More than 18,000 refugees are on the waiting list to make the trip, UNHCR spokesperson Jennifer Pagonis says.

Begun in March, the family visits allow the Sahrawi refugees residents of towns in Western Sahara to see each other, sometimes for the first time in 30 years, sometimes for the first time ever. Visits have been impossible since the refugees left the territory in the late 1970s, following Moroccan attacks with chemical weapons on the civilian population.

UNHCR late last year introduced what the UN agency called "confidence-building measures", which included a direct phone and mail services between the Algerian camps and Western Sahara in addition to the family visit programme. A large part of the estimated 165,000 refugees living in the camps has shown interest in the new offer.

The operation has proven a logistical effort. UNHCR agency uses Antonov-26 planes from the UN peacekeeping mission for Western Sahara (MINURSO) to transport roughly 50 persons between the camps and the territory each week.

The UNHCR spokesperson said the visits involve constant supervision by the agency from start to finish. "Our staff select candidates and monitor the visits on both sides of the border to ensure that they proceed smoothly. MINURSO provides medical staff and UN Civilian Police to assist the operation, as well as other logistical support," she said at a press briefing in Geneva.

Any extension of the popular programme beyond August and the boosting of other confidence-building measures would require additional funds to pay for fuel and other needs, Ms Pagonis said. "If extended, UNHCR believes that more than 2,400 Saharans could participate in family visits by the end of this year," she said.

UNHCR also says the agency would like to strengthen the telephone call centre initiative - which has seen more than 3,000 calls made, 60 percent of them by women refugees - to enable refugees to make 15,000 calls to their relatives in the territory before the end of the year, she added.

The UN agency said it wanted to expand the call centres to the Smarra and Awserd refugee camps and purchase microwave equipment to link up remote Dakhla refugee camp. The four Sahrawi refugee camps are located close to the Algerian desert town Tindouf, but with large distances and poor communication between them.

Life in the camps has been dire since they were established in the late 1970s. With poor communications and close to no commercial possibilities in harsh climatic conditions, time has passed slowly in the camps. While the refugees have worked collectively to construct some buildings and roads, many still live in tents. Water and food supply is difficult and always depends on donor goodwill.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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