LOC10:42
07:42 GMT
GENEVA , April 12 (KUNA) -- The UN High Commision of Refugees UNHCR said on
Thursday that it launched on Wednesday the first flight in an expanded program
of visits for long-separated Sahrawi families in the Tindouf camps of Algeria
and in Western Sahara Territory.
A Boeing 737 aircraft transported 150 visiting relatives from Western
Sahara Territory to the camps in Algeria , and returned carrying 137 Sahrawi
refugees from the Tindouf camps back to Western Sahara Territory, said the
UNHCR in a press release.
The visits are for five days. Previously a 30-seat Antonov aircraft has
been employed. With the new aircraft, up to 6000 people are expected to
benefit from the visits over the coming year.
"This increased capacity is important, as it means that many more husbands
and wives, parents and children that have been separated for decades will be
able to spend a few precious days together," said Antonio Guterres, UN High
Commissioner for Refugees. "The visits contribute significantly to relieving
the suffering due to the separation of the Sahrawi families."
The family visits are part of a Confidence-Building Measures programme that
was launched in 2004 with the cooperation of the governments of Morocco,
Algeria, Mauritania, as well as the Polisario Front, and UNHCR. Agreement
among the various parties to increase the family visits was reached at a
meeting in Geneva in January this year.
Another element of the Confidence-Building Measures programme is cultural
seminars. UNHCR has regular meetings with Morocco, Polisario Front, Algeria
and Mauritania who all contribute to this humanitarian and non-political
programme.
So far over 12,800 people have visited family members in the Tindouf camps
in Algeria and in the Western Sahara Territory. A further 42,000 Sahrawi are
on waiting lists.
Sahrawi refugees began arriving in Algeria in 1976 after Spain withdrew
from the Western Sahara and fighting broke out over its control. Most of the
Sahrawi refugees have been living for more than 35 years in the desert regions
of Tindouf. However, many Sahrawis stayed in the Western Sahara and today
families remain separated. (end)
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KUNA 121042 Apr 12NNNN