Attachments
By Rita Reis
The decades-long Sahrawi displacement stands out as one of the world’s most enduring, protracted, and overlooked refugee situations. Displaced by the 1975 failed decolonization process of Western Sahara by Spain and the subsequent invasion by Morocco and Mauritania, ethnic Sahrawis have established five refugee camps and an administrative center in Tindouf Province, Algeria, as the social, political, and administrative center of their government in exile. From these camps in Algeria’s southwestern corner, approximately 174,000 Sahrawi refugees are engaged in a nation-building process aimed at creating an egalitarian society that transcends traditional tribal and gender hierarchies. Unlike most other refugee settings, these camps are fully managed by the Polisario Front, an independence movement and the government in exile that is estimated to control about one-quarter of the disputed territory of Western Sahara (Morocco, which calls the territory its Southern Provinces, controls the rest). As many as 84 countries at one point recognized Polisario’s proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) in the territory of Western Sahara, although international recognition has fluctuated over time in response to broader geopolitical trends, and dozens of countries say they no longer recognize the Sahrawi Republic. Although international organizations do not administer the camps, inhabitants are entirely dependent on humanitarian aid.
Algeria distinguishes itself from other refugee host countries by granting significant autonomy to Sahrawis. By entrusting administration of the territory housing the refugee camps to the Polisario Front, the Algerian government enables the Sahrawis to manage their own affairs. It has also supported an independent Western Sahara. Furthermore, while Sahrawis are not necessarily able to become citizens of Algeria, they can obtain Algerian passports through a process managed by the Polisario. These passports include a specific code indicating that the holder is Sahrawi and does not hold Algerian nationality. The documents allow Sahrawis to travel abroad under the same conditions as Algerian citizens. Algeria’s support for Sahrawi self-determination, and by extension for the Polisario Front, has been a persistent source of tension with neighboring Morocco, with which it has long had difficult relations despite the two countries’ shared religious, linguistic, and cultural ties, as well as similar histories as former French colonies.
Since the Sahrawi Republic’s establishment in 1976, Polisario has supported educational mobility programs allowing children and young adults to study abroad, as part of the nation-building process. The programs were designed to build skills and international connections that could benefit the independence movement. In the past, most young Sahrawis would return to the camps after their studies. But in recent years, more have chosen to remain abroad as opportunities in the isolated camps—which can experience punishing heat and low rainfall—have dwindled. At the same time, conditions in the camps can be difficult, with high rates of food insecurity in recent years. This growing focus on remaining abroad reflects changing aspirations of young Sahrawi refugees, raising questions about how they balance individual desires and collective duties. For many, emigration to countries such as Spain does not necessarily mean abandoning the struggle for independence but can represent a reconfiguration driven by the Sahrawis’ decades of temporality in the camps. Although exact numbers are difficult to determine, several thousand Sahrawis currently reside in Spain alone. Furthermore, growing Sahrawi communities have established themselves in other European countries, including France and Italy, alongside a longstanding community in Mauritania.
This article provides an overview of Sahrawi displacement from Western Sahara, which is sometimes referred to as Africa’s last colony, and explores youth’s transnational mobility trajectories. It examines how displacement and education have shaped migration and diaspora trends. It also considers the future for Sahrawi refugees and what these trends might mean for the group’s nationalist struggle.