Morocco refuses to hand over Syrian refugees that Algeria wants to host and denying them access to asylum and urgent humanitarian assistance.
Algiers – MOFA Spokesman statement. 07 June 2017.
“Algeria has provisionally lifted the system set up to welcome and take charge of the group of Syrian nationals stranded in Figuig (Morocco) since 17 April, regretting that despite all the arrangements made to host this A group of migrants, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was unable to reach a solution.
As part of the implementation of the decision of the highest Algerian authorities to host, on an exceptional and humanitarian basis, at the request of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the group of Syrian nationals stranded in Figuig on Moroccan territory Since last April 17, the Algerian government has sent an official delegation in Beni-Ounif, which was joined by the UNHCR representative in Algeria, Hamdi Boukhari.
A special mechanism has been put in place and adequate human and material resources have been mobilized to provide decent accommodation and provide the necessary care in accordance with the Algerian people’s hospitality traditions to the group in question.
Despite all the steps taken to accommodate this group of migrants, UNHCR has not been able to reach a solution.
In the face of this regrettable situation, Algeria is obliged to temporarily lift the system set up for their reception and care, in accordance with international rules and practice in this field.
Algeria had decided to host, on a humanitarian basis, the group of Syrian nationals, including a pregnant woman and children stranded in Morocco.
This exceptional humanitarian gesture, which Algeria consents, takes into account the particularly difficult situation in which this group finds itself and proceeds from the will of Algeria to put an end to it in this holy month of Ramadhan by welcoming on its territory the members Of this group of Syrian migrants, to ensure their accommodation, to provide them with the necessary care and to enable them, if they so wish, to join other members of their families in a grouping Family in other countries.
Algeria consents to this duty out of solidarity with the brotherly people of Syria in the ordeal it is going through and it is this same duty of solidarity that has led it to welcome on its soil since the beginning of the crisis more than 40,000 Syrians who have benefited from a system enabling them to enjoy facilities such as residence, free movement, schooling, access to medical care, housing and the exercise of Commercial activities”.
Read more on Amnesty International website : https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2017/06/syrian-refugees-trapped-in-desert-on-moroccan-border-with-algeria-in-dire-need-of-assistance/
Statement of UNHCR on this issue:
UNHCR statement on Syrians stranded between Algeria
For its part,The president of the Algerian Red Crescent, Mrs Saida Benhabyles, reiterated, on June 14th, Algeria’s readiness to continue its humanitarian and solidarity action towards the Syrian refugees by providing them with all the necessary social and health conditions and the schooling of their children.
She told, after sharing” Iftar ” with Syrian families at the Sidi Fredj camp on the occasion of the holy month of Ramadhan.
The fast-breaking fast food organized by the the Algerian Red Crescent in honor of the Syrian families, estimated at about 70 families, 300 people, some of them Palestinian, is part of the “humanitarian and solidarity with the people Syrian in this difficult conjuncture that Syria knows “.
Speaking on the Syrian families currently blocked at the Moroccan borders, Benhabyles said that this issue “does not arise between Algeria and Morocco but rather concerns the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UN) and Morocco, “stressing that the action of Algeria” responds to a humanitarian duty that emanates from the precepts of Islam and the principles of international humanitarian law and, which has concretized by the opening of Its borders to accommodate these refugees “.
The representative of the Syrian community in Algeria, Salah Yezbek, expressed his “gratitude and sincere thanks to the Algerian authorities for redoubling initiatives to ensure the social, educational, health and humanitarian care of the Syrian families on The Algerian soil “.
