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The Polisario launched a new edition of its «Vacances en Paix» program last week. Each summer, hundreds of children from the Tindouf camps travel to European countries, particularly Spain, to spend a few weeks with host families. However, this stay extends over several years, with the blessing of the Polisario.
Concerns have been raised about the program's true objectives. The Forum de Soutien aux Autonomistes de Tindouf (FORSATIN), an NGO, points out that «Vacances en Paix» might facilitate the adoption of Sahrawi children by European families. FORSATIN claims the program grooms children through various activities «mainly aimed at uprooting them» from their families and culture.
FORSATIN alleges the selection of children is not random, targeting those from tribal minorities or orphans, ensuring «silence from biological families» or relatives in the camps. Meanwhile, children of Polisario leaders and major tribes reportedly pursue education elsewhere.
Held by their own families in the Tindouf camps
The first edition of «Vacances en Paix» dates to 1979, when the Spanish Communist Party organized a trip for 100 Sahrawi children. Subsequently, potential adoption by European families, especially Spanish ones, became part of the program.
Despite the Polisario's efforts, the program faces challenges. Families have, on occasion, refused the «uprooting» of their children, even «sequestering» them upon their return to Tindouf.
In 2016, Human Rights Watch urged the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to press the Polisario to facilitate the release of three women, Maâloma Morales de Matos, a Spanish national; Darya Embarek Selma; and Najiba Mohamed Kacem, who were forcibly held by their families in the camps after objecting to their children's adoption.
The Front then complied with the families' wishes to avoid reliving the popular protests that followed the exfiltration, in November 2014, of Mahjouba Mohamed Hamdidaf, a Spanish national who was prohibited for months by her biological parents from joining her adoptive family in Spain.
In addition to family dramas, the children of «Vacances en paix» do not escape political instrumentalization by the Polisario. In August 2018, the Vatican was forced to issue a clarification in response to the media exploitation of a photo of Pope Francis with Sahrawi children in Rome.
