Western Sahara: “These camps will never be our home, we want to return to our homeland.”

In early December 2013, I arrived in La’ayoune, the capital of occupied Western Sahara. The issues that frame the Sahrawi people’s ongoing struggle for independence had led me to the cities of Smara and Dakhla, in Western Sahara, as well the Sahrawi refugee camps in Tindouf, Algeria.

The legal status of the Western Sahara and the question of sovereignty remain unresolved. The territory is contested between Morocco and the Polisario Front. It is considered a non-self governed occupied territory by the United Nations. In Morocco, meanwhile, there is no debate as to whom the region belongs to; “it is Morocco’s land, it has always been part of our country” my taxi driver tells me quite confidently.

via Western Sahara: “These camps will never be our home, we want to return to our homeland.” | Ceasefire Magazine.