Algeria Spent $ 33 Million On Refugees In 2015

Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights on Tuesday appealed to the international community and non-governmental organizations to intervene urgently to save the Syrian refugees who are stranded on the border between Algeria and Morocco for more than two months.

On the occasion of the International Day of Refugees on June, 20 for each year, the league asserted in its statement, that the suffering of 8 Syrian families on the border between Algeria and Morocco is continuing since April,17, 2017. 

“Their health and psychological conditions deteriorated significantly in a volatile desert atmosphere, and strong wind, and the spread of insects and snakes, in the absence of any kind of health care, in the absence of the conditions of human care”, describing them as a “crime against humanity”, after continuing their detention and refusing to allow them to enter the Algerian territory, although Algeria agreed to take care of them on June,1, 2017.

Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights affirmed that “Morocco mistreats these Syrian refugees and prevents them from any movement, and does not provide them with the minimum necessities in a flagrant violation of the humanitarian values ​​and principles that are set out in the international humanitarian law and in the Charter of the United Nations”.

“I am concerned that these refugees are subjected to ill-treatment, deprivation of basic necessities and medical care in an arid desert and under extreme temperatures of over 40 degrees during the holy month of Ramadan, and they face an unknown fate with an attempted genocide by the Moroccan Makhzen”, Houari Kadour, Chairman of the Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights, said. 

“Algerian authorities, together with the representative of the UNHCR in Algeria, Hamdi Boukhari, have recently taken all measures to receive these refugees, including pregnant women and kids for humanitarian grounds, including the transfer of a youth center in the Bechar province with about 50 rooms that are equipped for the reception in addition to the recruitment of a team of civil protection in place to ensure the health and psychological care of Syrian nationals, but the representative of the UNHCR was surprised with the official delegation of the Algerian authorities when they arrived to the site because the Moroccan authorities refused to allow Syrian nationals to enter the Algerian territory through the border center of Beni Ouennif in Bechar (southwest Algeria), but more than that, the Moroccan authorities violated their international obligations in the protection of refugees when it refusal to help the Syrians who were stranded in Morocco and refused to communicate with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights expressed regret for this behavior by appealing to all the free people of the international community and non-governmental organizations to intervene to save these refugees, including 10 kids who were stranded for two months in a buffer zone in the Moroccan territory, who use their clothes in order to protect themselves from the sun, and sleep on the ground.

Contradictory figures

Algerian Association for the Defense of Human Rights returned to its figures on the number of refugees and illegal immigrants in the world and in Algeria, noting that the data of an official report showed on Monday that the number of refugees and displaced people around the world rose to 65.5 million people by the end of last year.

According to a report that is issued by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the number of refugees and displaced persons in 2016, increased by about 300.000 people, compared with the previous year.

According to the Human Rights Commission, the number of refugees in Algeria from Western Sahara is 165.000 refugees in Tindouf camps, while the UNHCR in Algeria confirms that the number reaches about 90.000.

Number of Palestinian refugees is about 4040 refugees, while the number of Libyan refugees reaches about 40.000 refugees, while the UNHCR asserted that there are over 40.000 Libyan refugees in Algeria.