Rabat did not respect obligations towards refugees, says Amnesty International

Amnesty International criticized Morocco for not respecting its international commitments towards Syrian refugees in Figuig Sahara. It did not receive them, neither did it let Algerian authorities to be in charge of them.

“Moroccan authorities are flouting their international obligations to give protection to refugees by entrapping a group of 25 Syrian refugees in a desert area on the border between Morocco and Algeria and denying them access to asylum and urgent humanitarian assistance,” said the organization in a release issued on Thursday.

It added that 10 children among the refugees had been stuck for the past two months in a buffer zone within Moroccan territory, 1km from the oasis of Figuig in Morocco and 5km away from Beni Ounif in Algeria. 

They had been surviving on informal assistance and supplies from locals in Figuig facilitated by the Moroccan border police, but according to the refugees this stopped on Friday morning. The Moroccan border police has thus far not given Moroccan human rights groups and humanitarian organizations, including the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), access to the area. 

Amnesty also said Morocco is flouting its international obligations and it must grant the refugees their right to apply for asylum.

Earlier, Human Rights Watch criticized Morocco for kicking out Syrian refugees without giving them the chance to seek asylum.

For humanitarian reasons, Algeria decided to receive a group of Syrian nationals. “This initiative shows Algeria’s will to end this situation in the fasting month of Ramadan. Those Syrian immigrants will be received, sheltered and treated,” said the foreign ministry.