Free Sahara

During these Christmas holidays I went on a cultural trip to the desert in Algeria. This 9-days trip was organized by the University of Castellón. During my stay I lived together with a local family. They were really nice for me. Because I lived with locals I learned to know much better their habits, way of living and culture. I love this way of travelling.



On my hands, and especially and my nails, you can still see some henna.

Every day the 20 Spanish participants of the project and 20 locals came together and discussed about the situation in the desert. These conversations were very interesting and we talked about all kinds of aspects, like the social aspect, financial support, health, and more…

I will never forget the story of one local. He told us how corrupt the Moroccan government can be. They putted him in prison because he crossed the border and went to the desert to see his family. The Moroccans tortured him really badly.

The first three days in prison he suffered from hunger, because he didn’t received anything to eat. I can’t remember how long he was under lock and key but long enough to get Hepatitis B.

For more than 30 years, the refugees from Western Sahara have been living in camps in Algeria. They depend entirely on international aid for their survival. Between 175 thousand people live in very difficult conditions in the middle of the desert where they have no chance of making a living.

The Saharan people could choose or a war against Morocco or the prohibition to enter in Morocco ever again. They don’t want to fight so they are waiting and hoping that the Moroccan government changes of opinion.

The Saharan youngsters want to go back to their country, the country where they belong and that they’ve never seen, and reunite with their families. Some of them only have seen pictures of their grandparents.

The worst part of the story is that the Saharan people don’t possess official documents, so that they don’t belong in any country, can’t leave the country and can’t enter another country. They only possess temporary documents from the Algerian government, which is their only way to leave.

Meanwhile the Sahrawi that stayed in Morocco suffer from the repression of the Moroccan police. Many are violated in their houses; suffer from tortures, and some of them are in prison because they wanted to defend the Sahrawi honour.
When the children draw the flag of the Sahrawi, the Moroccan teacher tells it to headmaster who in turn tells it to the police. The police pick up the children and torture them during days and nights.

When it happens, the classmates of the kid that was tortured draw several Saharan flags and tied to cat tails. The flags were undulating everywhere and no one could be blamed because the cats were the ones who were holding the flags.

In Morocco it’s common that the police send to the jail to the member of the family who bring the money to the house. Doing this, the family remains without any income and, in theory, will fall apart. But the Saharans are very strong people and they are also very humble and supportive, so, when a family loses their incomes, they share everything they have.

There is also a Norwegian Ngo (non-governmental organization) that helps these families.

It’s a very difficult situation; the human rights are violated every day.

Europe was witness of the Aminatou Haidar case; the Moroccan authorities committed a mistake and sent her back to a Spanish airport.
Aminatou Haidar is Saharan and lives in occupied Sahara.

She was coming back from the US, where she picked up a prize that recognize her as a great human rights defender, and the Moroccan authorities tried to block her return to his place, Aaiun and sent her to Spain.

The refugee camps conserve the names of the occupied Sahara wilayas.

So, when they finally come back, every Saharan will come back to their respective wilayas, with their families. They will return to the place where it was the house that they abandoned when the Green March occur, more than 30 years ago.

The Green March was a strategy coordinated by Morocco in 1975, when Franco was dying, to occupy the Spanish colonies.

Morocco sent 350000 citizens and 25000 militaries with order of the occupation of those territories. Nowadays there are more Moroccans than Saharans in the lands that in the past belonged to the Saharan people.

The Moroccan bombing over the Saharan in 1976 left as a consequence, many deaths and many people in refugee camps.

Since 1976, the Moroccan government has been encouraging the movement of Moroccan citizens to the occupied zone of the Western Sahara. Now the Saharans are just a minority and they are discriminated in their own land.

The Moroccan government has everything set up to never return the lands to the real owners, the Saharans.

The UN want to finish with this situation, but the solutions offered by Morocco are not accepted by the Saharans and the solution given by the Saharans, get back their territories, is strongly denied by Morocco.
The reason is that the Western Sahara lands are full of phosphates and also shoals of fish.
Leaving apart the politic conflict, the personal experience I lived there was great; I have a new family now, and I also met a lot of people, Spanish and Saharans.



In addition, the trip changes my mind about Muslim culture.
The women play the main role in the society. They are the ones who have the last word when a decision has to be taken, for example in divorces, also when the humanitarian aid has to be divided, in the administration and in the vote for the administration personnel.


"Te llevas más de lo que dejas. Toda ayuda parece poca." Elena Cabedo García