• Text size Normal size text | Increase text size by 10% | Increase text size by 20% | Increase text size by 30%
  • Also available in French

Donor mission to Sahrawi refugee camps

Briefing Notes, 17 March 2009

This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Ron Redmond – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at the press briefing, on 17 March 2009, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

Tomorrow, representatives of donor countries and NGO partners, accompanied by UNHCR and WFP staff, will start a three-day mission to the Sahrawi refugee camps in western Algeria to see first-hand the situation in the sites and to assess the overall conditions of the refugees. The delegation of ambassadors and diplomats from more than 19 countries, including Brazil, France, Indonesia, Italy, Switzerland, South Africa, Spain, Nigeria and the United States, as well as representatives of the European Commission Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO), will visit two of four refugee camps. They will meet with the beneficiaries, refugee leaders and Algerian authorities.

Later this month, nutritionists from UNHCR and WFP will visit the camps to assess the current nutritional status of the most vulnerable refugees and to evaluate the current programmes and practices. The aim is to improve the nutritional situation of the refugees and reduce anaemia among the most vulnerable. The mission will also decide on whether to include additional commodities with high nutritional value in the food assistance, specifically targeted to children, pregnant and lactating women. It will also consider the acceptability of the new commodities by refugees.

The last survey conducted in 2008 by Médecins du Monde (MDM) and WFP in coordination with UNHCR concluded that there was malnutrition in the camps, with 61 percent of the children and 66 percent of pregnant women suffering from anaemia (iron deficiency). The assessment also showed that 55 percent of all women are anaemic, with a possibility of overall micro-nutrient deficiencies in the entire population. As a result, some remedial measures were taken by various agencies and NGOs. UNHCR provides complementary food commodities in addition to the 125,000 general food rations distributed by WFP. During the month of Ramadan in 2008, UNHCR distributed additional amounts of fresh food, camel meat and dairy products to improve the nutritional status of beneficiaries. In the camps, the creation of vegetable gardens has been promoted. Water distribution was improved through a new pipe system. It was previously trucked.

UNHCR's support also includes water and sanitation projects, extension of water networks, water trucking, health care, and vocational training centres for refugee women and youth.

In response to high rates of anaemia, WFP also has supplementary feeding and school feeding programmes within its operation, distributing fortified, blended foods to malnourished children, pregnant women and lactating mothers and providing a mid-day snack to primary school students.

WFP is also working to diversify the basic food basket, having included barley in 2008 and rice in 2009. Pasta has been distributed for January – March 2009 with Italian funding. A complementary project with Spanish funding will allow for the inclusion of gofio (toasted maize meal) as of May 2009. All items are part of the traditional diet for the Western Sahara refugees.

WFP and UNHCR have been working very closely together to highlight the plight of the refugees through joint donor visits and joint assessment missions.

Sahrawi refugees started arriving in Algeria in the mid-seventies. UNHCR has been providing assistance to this group since the influx into the Tindouf area in 1975-76 while WFP has been providing food assistance since 1986.

• DONATE NOW • • GET INVOLVED • • STAY INFORMED •

 

Related stories by:

UNHCR country pages

Food and Nutrition

UNHCR strives to improve the nutritional status of all the people it serves.

UNHCR Algeria Fact Sheet

Confidence Building Measures 2009/2010 Western Sahara

Information brochure about UNHCR's Confidence Building Measures programme aimed at addressing the effects of prolonged separation between the Saharan refugees in the camps near Tindouf, Algeria and their families in Western Sahara.

Western Sahara Family Visits

Emotions are running high in the Sahara desert as families split for nearly three decades by conflict over sovereignty of the Western Sahara Territory are being briefly reunited by a UNHCR family visit scheme.

Living in five windswept and isolated camps around Tindouf in south-western Algeria for the last 28 years, the refugees have been almost totally cut off from their relatives in the Territory. So when the UN refugee agency launched its five-day family visit scheme in March this year, there were tears of joy as well as apprehension at the prospect of reunion.

The visit scheme is proving extremely popular, with more than 800 people already having visited their relatives and another 18,000 signed up to go. In addition to the family visit scheme, the UN refugee agency has opened telephone centres in some of the camps, creating another channel through which long-lost family members can make contact.

Photos taken in June 2004.

Western Sahara Family Visits

Sighted off Spain's Canary Islands

Despite considerable dangers, migrants seeking a better future and refugees fleeing war and persecution continue to board flimsy boats and set off across the high seas. One of the main routes into Europe runs from West Africa to Spain's Canary Islands.

Before 2006, most irregular migrants taking this route used small vessels called pateras, which can carry up to 20 people. They left mostly from Morocco and the Western Sahara on the half-day journey. The pateras have to a large extent been replaced by boats which carry up to 150 people and take three weeks to reach the Canaries from ports in West Africa.

Although only a small proportion of the almost 32,000 people who arrived in the Canary Islands in 2006 applied for asylum, the number has gone up. More than 500 people applied for asylum in 2007, compared with 359 the year before. This came at a time when the overall number of arrivals by sea went down by 75 percent during 2007.

Sighted off Spain's Canary Islands

Afghanistan: The Reality of Return

The UN refugee agency and the World Food Programme join forces to improve the lives of Afghan returnees in the east of the country

After more than two decades of war, Afghanistan faces enormous recovery needs. The rugged, landlocked nation remains one of the poorest in the world, with more than half its 25 million citizens living below the poverty line. Furthermore, the rise in global food prices has affected more than 2.5 million Afghans, who can no longer afford to buy staples such as wheat flour.

Since 2002, more than 5 million Afghans have gone back home, with a large proportion returning to the eastern provinces. The returnees face huge challenges, such as insecurity, food shortages, insufficient shelter, unemployment and a lack of access to basic services.

UNHCR and WFP are working in partnership to help returnees in Afghanistan to rebuild their lives, particularly in the east. Programmes such as skills training, micro hydroelectricity projects and food distribution have helped Afghans get back on their feet and work towards creating sustainable livelihoods.

Posted on 18 September 2008

Afghanistan: The Reality of Return

Philippines: Landless in MindanaoPlay video

Philippines: Landless in Mindanao

Displaced by fighting, one indigenous community in the Philippines didn't want food or shelter -- only training to stand up for their rights.
Liberia: Hurried FlightPlay video

Liberia: Hurried Flight

Tens of thousands of Ivorians have fled their villages and sought shelter in Liberia. Francis says he ran for his life and now he wants safety and food.
2009 MeetingPlay video

2009 Meeting

The combined impact of the economic downturn with the global trends of climate change, urbanization, increased population and food insecurity on human displacement were on the agenda of the annual meeting of UNHCR's governing body.