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A Human Rights Watch team of three researchers and an interpreter visited four
refugee camps (Smara, El-Ayoun, February 27, and Rabouni) near Tindouf, Algeria,
from November 10 – 13, 2007. We did not visit the Polisario-controlled portion of
Western Sahara or interview Sahrawis who reside in this sparsely populated area.
We interviewed 28 refugees residing in the camps, six Polisario officials, four
foreigners working for the UN agencies and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)
that are present in the camps, as well as other foreigners residing in the camps. We
selected the refugees for interviews through referrals by Sahrawis living in Western
Sahara, foreign workers living in the camps, journalists who had visited the camps,
and through referrals by camp residents themselves.
Our interview subjects do not constitute a scientific sample of the camp population,
although they did offer a range of views on the Polisario leadership. In addition, we
compared their testimonies with information from interviews we conducted outside
of the camps, both with Sahrawis and non-Sahrawis who had a direct and recent
experience of life in the camps. These included Sahrawis living in Spain and France
as well as more than 19 who had left the camps between 2006 and 2008 to live in
Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara. We also interviewed a number of Sahrawis
who had left the camps ten or more years ago about past Polisario abuses; this
report, however, focuses on the present-day human rights situation.
While in the Tindouf camps, Human Rights Watch set its own schedule and moved
about freely. We did not conduct interviews with residents in the presence of
Polisario officials. However, due to housing conditions, it was often impossible to
conduct interviews in a private, one-on-one setting. We conducted interviews in
Arabic, French, Spanish and English, using our own interpreter when necessary.
Several of the persons Human Rights Watch interviewed for this report asked not to
be named. In these cases we provide the date and location of the interview but not
the interviewee’s name.
19 Human Rights Watch December 2008