This position is "illegal, politically wrong and humanitarianly unacceptable" because it is not supported by any resolution neither of the UN General Assembly, the Security Council nor the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Omar Hilale told the UNHCR Standing Committee, which is holding its 44th session. 

The Moroccan diplomat added that the international community is entitled to know why, unlike other similar situations, people in Tindouf camps, south-western Algeria, are the only people who do not enjoy the right to return to their home country, Morocco. 

While everywhere in the world, host countries endeavour and encourage the departure of refugees from their territory and their return to the motherland, Algeria is the only country that opposes the return of these populations in the Saharan provinces to Morocco, he said, noting that no political argument can justify the persistence of this humanitarian tragedy. 

Conditioning this return to a political settlement of disputes, as Algeria has been doing for three decades, is simply accepting the persistence of this humanitarian tragedy, said the ambassador. 

He noted that this situation has persisted for decades not because these people do not want to be repatriated or their country of origin reject them, but simply because of the opposition of the host country, which continues to exploit their tragedy for its political agenda in the region. 

Hilale called on the UNHCR and the international community to make every effort to organize the voluntary repatriation of these populations to the motherland, Morocco, because the solution of voluntary repatriation is the best and favourite solution for refugees, as stated in all UNHCR documents and confirmed by the conclusion of the dialogue of the High Commissioner in December 2008.

Tindouf camps should not remain outside the international law. Humanitarian law should apply to this population, under the initiative of the High Commissioner, Moroccan diplomat said, noting that the international community should no longer tolerate that this population continue to be hostage to the calculations, blackmails and political manoeuvres of Algeria. 

It is time, he said, that Algeria shows responsibility and humanism and agrees to open the camps allowing UNHCR to carry out the voluntary repatriation of these populations. 

In this respect, Hilale recalled that Morocco, faithful to its international commitments, has expressed since the beginning of this humanitarian tragedy its readiness to provide all guarantees required by international humanitarian laws.

The diplomat raised questions about the grounds for the non-inclusion of the status of the populations sequestered in Tindouf among the five pilot situations selected by the UNHCR, namely Afghan, Burundi, Eritrean, Croatian and Rohingya refugees. 

While understanding the choices of the High Commissioner, which benefit over 2.5 million refugees, “we would have liked that the case of Tindouf camps be presented to this Committee,” particularly that the situation in Tindouf camps is the most tragic in the world in the light of the three criteria established by the UNHCR, the diplomat said, noting that in terms of duration, the populations in Tindouf camps have been held against their will for more than three decades.