Rabat – The second meeting to evaluate the program of confidence-building led by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) between populations of Morocco’s southern provinces and their families in Tindouf camps in Algeria, was held on 24 and 25 January in Geneva.
The meeting was attended by delegations from Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania and the polisario.
Moroccan delegation was led by Nasser Bourita, Secretary General of the Foreign Ministry, and included notably ambassador Omar Hilale, Morocco’s Permanent Representative in Geneva and El Arbi Mrabet, Governor, in charge of the Bureau Coordination with MINURSO, said a statement from Foreign Department obtained by MAP news agency on Wednesday.
The U.N. Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy, Christopher Ross, and the Special Representative of Secretary-General, Hani Abdul Aziz, attended the meeting which was opened by the High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guetteres.
After the meeting, Bourita stressed that “the purpose of this meeting is to review the implementation of activities under the Action Plan of confidence-building measures, approved in 2004, including program of family visits, seminars and other non-political measures to loosen the grip on people living in the Tindouf camps in Algeria and alleviate their suffering.”
On this occasion, the delegation reiterated its call to preserve the integrity and the strictly humanitarian nature of this program, far from any politicization or instrumentalization.
This program is part of the UNHCR’s mandate to improve the living conditions of populations of the Tindouf camps and ensure their legal protection and humanitarian need, with the prior of identification and census.
