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Congressional Leaders Urge UN Refugee Agency to Address Reports of 'Ongoing Human Rights Failures' in Polisario-Run Camps in Algeria
February 3, 2010Last week, US House of Representatives Refugee Caucus Co-Chairs Reps. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) and Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL) called on the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) to "actively work" to protect Sahrawi refugees in Polisario-controlled camps near Tindouf in southern Algeria and expressed concern over a recent report by the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) that describes three-decades of "ongoing human rights and resettlement failures." In a letter sent to UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres—who in 2009 became the first UNHCR High Commissioner to visit the camps in more than thirty years—the Members of Congress expressed serious concern over accounts in the USCRI report of "dire living conditions in the camps" and "human rights abuses" suffered by tens of thousands of refugees at the hands of the Polisario. Full release.