“The right of peoples to self-determination is inalienable and the cause of the Sahrawi people is just and legitimate,” affirms Esquerra Senator Jordi Martí Deulofeu.

A delegation of senators, including Esquerra Senator Jordi Martí-Deulofeu, have travelled to the refugee camps in the Tindouf region in Algeria to learn first-hand about the situation at the Bojador refugee camp. According to United Nations figures there are about 38,000 people recorded there, many of them forcibly displaced by the conflict in Western Sahara, and who are in an extremely fragile situation because of COVID-19.

During the visit, Mr Martí met Brahim Gali, the President of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) and Secretary General of the Polisario Front, a well as Oubi Bachir, the Polisario Front’s representative to Europe and the European Union, Prime Minister Bucharaya Hamudi Beyun, and the Minister of Social Affairs and Women’s Emancipation, Suelma Beiruk. He expressed Esquerra’s “gratitude for their welcome, and solidarity with the legitimate cause of the Sahrawi people,” and that we remain at their disposal “for whatever is necessary.”

The conflict between the Sahrawi people and the Kingdom of Morocco over Western Sahara began over 40 years ago, in 1975. During all these years, a significant part of the population has sought refuge from the armed conflict fleeing to the camps in Tindouf, Algeria, where the Polisario Front proclaimed the SADR, recognized by more than 80 countries. In the late 1980s, a transitional period was agreed between the Moroccan authorities and the Polisario Front as part of the UN-approved Settlement Plan to prepare for an independence referendum in Western Sahara. This has so far been postponed because the Moroccan government refuses to allow it. In 1991, the United Nations also adopted a resolution to hold a referendum and established the MINURSO United Nations Mission for the Referendum.

The right of peoples to self-determination is inalienable and the cause of the Sahrawi people is just and legitimate

Jordi Martí-Deulofeu Senator of Esquerra Republicana

During his visit to the Association of Families of Prisoners and Disappeared Sahrawis (AFAPREDESA) and the Sahrawi Association of Victims of Landmines (ASAVIM), the Esquerra senator was able to ascertain that today, “the number of enforced disappearances in the conflict between the Sahrawi people and the Kingdom of Morocco over Western Sahara is 444. In 2010 Morocco recognized 351 disappearances for other reasons. In total, 14 children and 22 women. Regarding political prisoners, there are 42.”

“The right of peoples to self-determination is inalienable and the cause of the Sahrawi people is just and legitimate,” said Mr Martí at the Bojador refugee camp, and maintained that Spain “cannot disregard Western Sahara as an administrative power and must comply with the UN resolution of 1991 to hold a referendum.”

Finally, Mr Martí also expressed Esquerra Republicana’s commitment to the defence and respect for human rights and international law “wherever it is needed,” as well as “rejecting any form of repression suffered by the Sahrawi people.”