U.S. Committee for Refugees World Refugee Survey 1997 - Algeria

Algeria hosted nearly 115,000 refugees at the end of 1996: approximately 80,000 from Western Sahara, about 15,000 from Mali, approximately 15,000 from Niger, and about 4,000 Palestinians. Up to 10,000 Algerians were internally displaced. Between 10,000 and 40,000 refugees repatriated from Algeria to Mali during the year, according to various estimates. Thousands of Algerians remained asylees in Europe as Algeria's civil war continued. Up to 10,000 Algerians were internally displaced as a result of the past two-year upsurge in the country's violence. Sahrawi Refugees Ethnic Sahrawi refugees in Algeria were still unable to repatriate to their homeland, Western Sahara, because of ongoing delays in resolving the political status of Western Sahara in 1996. Sahrawis began fleeing to Algeria in 1975 because of a war for control over Western Sahara waged between Morocco and armed Sahrawis known as the Polisario (the Sahrawi Popular Front for the Liberation of the Saguia el Hmara and Rio de Oro). In 1989, the Polisario and Morocco agreed to support a national referendum in Western Sahara to determine whether the territory should be independent or annexed by Morocco. More than 70 countries have granted official recognition to the Sahrawi Republic. In 1991, the United Nations stationed a 375-person, 25-nation peacekeeping force in Western Sahara to supervise preparations for the referendum scheduled in early 1992. Preparations stalled when Morocco belatedly argued that the original list of 74,000 eligible voters should be supplemented with up to 120,000 people who claimed to have ancestral ties to the territory. The Polisario and many international observers charged that Moroccan leaders were attempting to add voters favoring Moroccan control over Western Sahara. Morocco has long claimed that 30,000 Sahrawi refugees were detained against their will by the Polisario in the camps in Algeria. The Polisario denied the charge. In 1996, the UN Security Council extended the mandate of the Identification Commission of the United Nations for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) until November. The same resolution suspended the identification process until both parties provided concrete and convincing evidence that they were committed to completing the referendum process without further obstacles. The Sahrawi refugees, housed in four camps in Algeria's harsh desert area of Tindouf, experienced severe problems in 1995 with flooding of the camps and ensuing food shortages. No similar food problems were reported in 1996. UNHCR established a field office in Tindouf in early 1996, and continued to implement social and community activities in the camp, including income-generating activities for women. Portions of a $9 million grant from the European Union supported refugee assistance in the area. Refugees from Mali, Niger An estimated 30,000 refugees from Mali and Niger – roughly equal numbers from both countries – were living in Algeria at the end of 1996. The large majority of refugees from Mali and Niger were ethnic Tuaregs who fled political and economic hardships in their own countries in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Algerian authorities, however, have historically regarded most Tuaregs as economic migrants and have been reluctant to classify them as refugees. The refugees have lived in the southernmost part of Algeria, in the heart of the Sahara Desert. Some 5,000 Malian refugees were in two camps in the Adrar and Tamanrasset districts, while about 2,500 refugees from Niger were in two camps in Illizi and Tamanrasset districts. Due to the Tuaregs' nomadic existence, and the Algerian government's reluctance to recognize them as refugees, uncertainty has lingered about the exact number of Malian and Nigerien refugees who have lived outside the UNHCR camps in Algeria for the past few years. "Estimating the number of Malian refugees in Algeria is not an easy exercise, as by their own tradition, they constitute a nomadic population," UNHCR stated. Refugees occupying camps received food, electricity, latrines, and a clinic. The Algerian government has constructed schools and supplied educational materials and paid teachers' salaries at some sites. The camps encountered food delivery problems in 1996 when WFP was unable to implement its full program. UNHCR bought food locally to avoid shortages. Some 3,000 refugees from Mali took advantage of UNHCR's organized repatriation program during the year. An additional 5,000 to 40,000 Malians repatriated spontaneously – the exact number was unclear because UNHCR was unable to monitor spontaneous repatriations to Mali. The Malian government reported that some 40,000 refugees returned from Algeria. Those who repatriated with UNHCR assistance received a repatriation grant equivalent to three months of rations. Some received another three-month package after arriving home in Mali. The majority of refugees who repatriated did so spontaneously, however, without UNHCR assistance. In March 1996, UNHCR and the governments of Algeria and Niger signed a tripartite agreement for the voluntary repatriation of refugees to Niger. A relatively small number of Nigerien refugees were believed to have repatriated. The Tripartite Commission decided that the repatriation of refugees to Niger would begin in July 1997 to allow time for preparing reception centers in Niger. Political Violence Since 1992, when the government canceled elections that the Islamic Salvation Front was poised to win, the security forces and armed Islamic groups have fought a brutal war, which has killed at least 50,000 people and has forced thousands of Algerians into exile, primarily in Europe. Some estimates put the death toll as high as 100,000. The dead included thousands of Islamic fundamentalist insurgents, government soldiers, police, and civilians. President Zeroual of Algeria, who was elected in November 1995, held talks with opposition groups throughout 1996, and promised to hold legislative elections in 1997, but the two sides failed to reach a peace agreement in 1996. Although some areas of the country reportedly suffered less conflict in 1996 than previously, an estimated 150 to 200 people were killed monthly. Victims have increasingly included government officials, local journalists, women, and foreigners. According to human rights observers, government-backed militia known as "self-defense groups" continued to kill with impunity civilians and suspected opposition group members. Armed opposition groups also continued to kill and terrorize civilians. Government security forces reportedly held hundreds of people in detention without charging them or informing their relatives of their whereabouts. Civilians continued to be caught in the violent struggle, resulting not only in death, but also displacement. Internal Displacement During the year, the government reportedly cleared thousands of people from shanty towns surrounding large cities, including the capital, ostensibly for security reasons. The government reportedly moved some people to rural villages, and provided financial assistance to a proportion of the displaced. Others were reportedly left to fend for themselves, living in tents without sanitation facilities or running water. Observers estimated that perhaps up to 10,000 Algerians were displaced at year's end, including those displaced since the upsurge in violence in 1994, as well as those who were uprooted by the shanty town clearances during 1996.