Interview with Western Sahara Trade Unionist and Activist
Interview with Western Sahara Trade Unionist and Activist
Saleh Abdfatah
Saleh Abdfatah is responsible for the Sahrawi Education and Training Union; the union is affiliated to Union General de Trabajadores de Saguia el Hamra y Río de Oro (UGTSARIO). He was also a participant at the fifth anniversary of Union General de Trabajadores de Saguia el Hamra y Río de Oro (UGTSARIO) at the Sahrawi refugee camps in Tindouf , Algeria between 19 to 23 of October 2024 also Khdeima Mohammed Lbachir 21 years old member of Popular de Liberación de Saguía el Hamra y Río de Oro spoke with Dimeji Macaulay on the challenges and struggle of Sahrawi People against Morocco occupation.
Below is the extract of the interview.
DM: Thank you for agreeing to this interview. Could you please introduce yourself and tell us a little about your background?
SA: Thank you for the interview, as you gave me the opportunity to speak to you and to the audience through your important platform, to introduce myself and learn about the struggle of our people, the African Sahrawi people. My name is Saleh Abdfatah, a Sahrawi professor, a member of the Sahrawi Education and Training Union and a cadre in the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training in the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.
DM: Can you share your journey that led you to the refugee camp?
SA: Our journey to the refugee camp started when the in the year 1974, after Spain withdrew from Western Sahara in 1975. The invasion of Western Sahara began, as the Moroccan army entered, numbering 25,000 Moroccan soldiers armed with various weapons and aircraft, in addition to trucks filled with Moroccans coming from the north, who were very numerous, and some of them were walking on foot in a huge march crossing the land of Western Sahara with the aim of invading and entering it, and expelling all the Sahrawis from their homes and farms. Eliminating them and stealing their property and killing their animals. Indeed, the Sahrawi population was expelled from their land, the land was occupied, seized and many armless Sahrawi were killed by the Moroccan population coming from the north in the form of a war of extermination against the Sahrawis. The date was October 31, 1975 (it is an ominous day for all the Sahrawis), on this very day the Moroccan invasion and attempt conquest began.
DM: What were the key events or challenges you faced during this time?
SA: It was not easy to change the place of residence and where we were living safely, freely and comfortably. During this coordinated attack they looted our houses, killed, displaced, burned tents, and poisoned our water. They bombed from the sky with French Jaguar aircraft and displaced those fleeing the hell of the Moroccan invasion. They besieged people in their homes and closed the roads with the army and military vehicles and also imprisoned the people. The Moroccans, settlers and the army, committed horrific crimes, and in this invasion, the Moroccan and Mauritanian armies began to pursue every Sahrawi, whether a child, a young man, a woman, a man, or an old man. In all the cities of Western Sahara from north to south and in the centre and west, in order to kill us and displace us from our homes and tents in the countryside. Even after we left with no hope of where to go. We carried some a few of luggages and we set off towards the northeastern Sahrawi border cities over hundred thousand Sahrawi tried to escape arrest and torture and fearing of been bombed to death.
These circumstances were very difficult for my family and all the Sahrawis, as we were subjected to all kinds of intimidation and psychological torture by the Morocco occupation. On our way, we arrived in the desert city of Tifariti in the morning. A few days later, we settled in a camp for displaced people and survivors of the genocide (the mass killing practiced by the Moroccan and Mauritanian armies). A few days later, our camp was bombed by warplanes, where the Moroccans committed the worst crimes of killing women, children and the elderly inside the camp and also in the rest of the displaced people’s camps. In other places, it was another terrible tragedy, just like what they did inside the cities and in the countryside at the beginning of the invasion. They stole people’s properties, burned tents, killed livestock and poisoned water wells. After our camp was bombed, we fled again and hide in the mounting and hills surrounding the camp for fear of being bombed by Moroccan planes. After a few days, we continued on our way with many displaced Sahrawi families who had survived the bombing on another trip to the border. It lasted a week, during which we suffered by walking long distance, sleeping in the open without blanket, lack of provisions for food and water, and many the children and women faces a lot of diseases. However, our goal was to reach next destination safely. We actually reached the Algerian, Sahrawi border, and then we entered Algeria and were received by our brothers from the Algerian Red Crescent. A wonderful reception and they provided us with all the humanitarian aid. Many people have suffered dehydration, malnourished and needs medicine, food, blankets and mattresses. Red Crescent medical teams supervised the treatment of children, women and people of all ages. They also provided us with tents for housing and set up camps for the displaced and those fleeing the brutality and killing of the Moroccan army and the survivors of the bombing with phosphorate and napalm from French Jaguar planes which the Moroccan army uses against the Sahrawis. From here began the establishment of the first Sahrawi refugee camps near the Algerian region of Tindouf.
DM: What does your daily life look like in the camp and how do you cope with the challenges of living in a refugee camp?
SA: We live a modest life, everyone provides volunteer work for the people, whether a man or a woman, such as a teacher, doctor, administrator, or cleaner. Everyone works hard and sincerely. We are an organized people who depend on the management of our life affairs in the refugee camp with democracy and discipline. The refugee life is known to everyone to be very difficult in terms of the cold climate in winter and the hot climate in summer, but we, as a people of resistance, we try to be patient and overcome these difficult circumstances. Yes, we suffer in these circumstances and for years from the lack of abilities, means, and essential needs for refugees, that are necessary for us, such as consumer goods, clothes, and tents, but thanks to the support of friends of the Sahrawi people and humanitarian assistance from some countries such as international donor organizations, we try to overcome the most important difficulties.
DM: Can you explain your role in the trade union?
SA: I am the official of external relations and cooperation for the union, and a member of the National Authority of the Union of Sahrawi Education and Training Workers. I joined the Sahrawi Education and Training Union for the following basic objectives:
Defending the moral, social and material rights of Sahrawi education and training workers with all official bodies.
To establish a network of external relations and cooperation for the union with other partners from professional unions and labour unions abroad.
To represent our Union of Education and Training Workers with other unions and labour unions abroad, participating in scientific and training forums and seminars, making the voice of the Sahrawi refugee teacher heard in the world, and defending the Sahrawi cause in Africa and the World.
DM: What issues does the trade union address for refugees?
SA: Advocating for workers education and training of staff in different sector and helping them gain their rights during work. Handling complaints submitted to the union by education and training workers with official bodies and finding appropriate solutions for them. Organizing seminars, lectures, meetings and workshops with friends from unions and some federations for the benefit of teachers and professors in the fields of education and training and in the presence of specialists. Celebrating national holidays and occasions specific to the Sahrawi teacher and other international ones.
The Sahrawi society is an ancient, kind and noble society, and its characteristics include honouring and being kind to guests. Our people love charitable and humanitarian work and are distinguished by cooperation and solidarity between family members and between members of society as a whole. We help each other in all circumstances and in social conditions. Our Sahrawi society loves peace and security. We are kind to the young, protect and preserve the rights of the child, respect the elderly and help those in need among us. We are an organized and optimistic people, and we respect and appreciate women’s rights. We believe in equality between all in rights and duties. Women are considered the nucleus of the family and the foundation of society. They are teachers, doctors and administrators, and they are responsible for organizing family affairs and have great responsibilities in society and the state: they are ministers, parliamentarians, ambassadors, governors and officials of the district and municipality. We are a people who greatly appreciate women’s work and contribution to the building of a better Western Sahara.
DM: In your view, what are the most pressing political issues facing refugees today?
SA: In my view, the issue of the international community and the United Nations, headed by the Security Council, abandoning finding a solution to the problem of the occupation of Western Sahara by Morocco and not giving it priority as a decolonization issue since 1963, which is considered the last colony in Africa, and not supporting the efforts of the Sahrawi people to achieve their freedom and independence, and not giving the Sahrawi people the right to self-determination in a real, free and fair referendum that guarantees the implementation of international legitimacy and organizes the referendum, is an important and general concern for the Sahrawi issue and for all the Sahrawi people at home and abroad.
DM: How do you think this Issue of Occupation can be finally resolved?
SA: In my view, the treatment of these issues is as follows:
The failure of the Security Council and the United Nations to show a real intention to hold accountable the Moroccan regime, which every time causes the obstruction of the efforts of the Secretaries-General in peace and the manipulation of the decisions of the Security Council and the United Nations in implementing the referendum and obstructing it in Western Sahara.
– Referring to the decisions of the International Court of Justice, the decisions of the Decolonization Committee, and even the recent decision of the European Court of Justice, to consider that all the decisions of these international bodies guarantee the legitimacy of the Sahrawi people over their land and wealth without dispute, and these international bodies recognize that the Sahrawi people, and that the Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Rio de Oro are the sole representative of the Sahrawi people and that the Sahrawi people are the masters of their land, Western Sahara, and its various resources, and have the right to independence and freedom.
– The Moroccan regime must be held accountable and isolated at all levels for its intransigence and procrastination for three decades or more, obstructing the organization of the referendum in Western Sahara and peace efforts in the region, and not accepting the decisions of the International Court of Justice and the United Nations regulations for the referendum and obstructing the right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination for the sake of freedom and independence on their land.
DM: What are your hopes for the future, both for yourself and for the refugee community?
SA: I look forward to returning to my homeland and to achieve independence for my people and breaking the silence and media blackout imposed on our people in the occupied areas of Western Sahara by the Moroccan occupation. I also look forward to reuniting the Sahrawi families with their families whom they left behind in the occupied Western Sahara, where the Moroccan occupation separated them by building the longest wall that isolates and separates the Sahrawi families from each other, some of whom live in the cities of the occupied Western Sahara and others in the Sahrawi refugee camps. I also look forward to resolving the issue of my people quickly and achieving the independence of my country, Western Sahara, from the Moroccan occupation. I also look forward to more attention to the Sahrawi refugees by the international community and international organizations, and to supporting the refugees and alleviating their suffering and asylum conditions. I want the professional and labour unions and syndicates in Africa and even internationally to interact more with the issue of the Sahrawi people with the aim of imposing the Sahrawi people’s choice for freedom and independence on their entire land, Western Sahara. I look forward, along with all professional and labour unions in Africa, to supporting education and vocational training in the Sahrawi refugee camps.
DM: Is there anything else you would like to share about your experiences or the work of the trade union?
SA: Participating in supporting the Sahrawi people by issuing written or audio media statements and through platforms, seminars and conferences to expose the actions of the Moroccan occupation and creating media platforms and television programs and in the media and communication with the aim of advocating for the Sahrawi cause and introducing it internally and externally.
– Confronting all attempts by the Moroccan regime to steal and plunder the wealth and resources of the Sahrawi people from the occupied territories and exposing all foreign companies complicit with it in plundering the natural, fish and mineral resources of Western Sahara.
– Boycotting the Moroccan occupation and isolating it from within the bodies of the African Union and exposing all its actions aimed at breaching and dismantling the African Union.
DM: Thank you for sharing your story. How can people support the cause of refugees and trade unions?
SA: I cannot express my sincere thanks to you and I am honoured to be hosted for an interview like this, and thanks also to all the comrades in Nigeria and across the world that has stood by us. Through this interview, I extend a word of thanks to all the free people of the world who support the Sahrawi people from near or far, and thanks to everyone who stands with them until victory. I address a request to all labour unions to stand by supporting our legitimate cause, which is the Sahrawi people freedom and independence. I also call on my brothers and comrades, members of labour unions, to establish partnership and cooperation relations with the Sahrawi Education and Training Workers Union to support education and training with the means and capabilities to improve the quality of education and training and exchange expertise and experiences between teachers in various fields, embodying the bonds of brotherhood and partnership between all professional and labour unions in Africa and even internationally. We call on civil society activists to contribute to supporting the Sahrawi people to alleviate their suffering as refugees, and we call on our brothers in the unions and civil society activists to pay more and more attention to advocating for our people in the occupied territories and breaking the barrier of silence and media blackout imposed by the Moroccan occupation on Sahrawi political activists in the occupied territories. We call on the international community to stop the Moroccan regime to allow human rights and basic freedoms for the Sahrawi people inside the occupied region of Western Sahara and to release Sahrawi activists and Sahrawi political prisoners languishing in the secret and dark prisons of the Moroccan occupation.
Khdeima Mohammed Lbachir 21years old member of Popular de Liberación de Saguía el Hamra y Río de Oro spoke with Dimeji Macaulay on the challenges and struggle of Saharawi People. Below is the extract of the interview.
Interview with Khdeima a Western Sahara woman who lives in a refugee camps. This interview will help provides a valuable opportunity to understand their personal experiences, resilience, and perspectives on broader political and social issues. 
Khdeima Mohammed
DM: Can you share a bit about your background and how you came to live in the refugee camp?
KML: The major reason for the arrival of the Saharawi’s to seek refuge in Tindourf Algeria in early 1970 is the invasion of our land by the Kingdom of Morocco, where they attacked us from everywhere, and the sister and neighbour country Algeria opened its land for us. For close five decades our forefathers are here, I was born here.
DM: How has living in a refugee camp affected your daily life and your family?
KML: It affected us psychologically, and that these generations were away from their original homeland, including depriving them of their land and resources while Morocco and multinationals are enjoying the resource. Being in a refugee camp is not an easy thing. We face a lot of problems, cold, heat and wind. Some families do not have homes only canvas.
DM: How would you describe your connection to Western Sahara, despite being displaced?
KML: I believe that our struggle for self-determination it is a just cause, we are still related to those at Western Sahara, the occupied territory. We are one people who belong to our being Sahrawis, our religion, our language and our culture are the same, and this feeling stems from our belief in the national cause.
We have a lot of memories that we have immortalize and remember annually to remember including those in homeland, one of the holidays is February 27, the declaration of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, and May 20, when the first bullet was fired, and much more.
DM: How is life in the refugee Camp?
KML: I wake up, I do the prayer, I prepare the family breakfast, I clean, I go to study, I go back, I rest, I pray, I take a nap, the day goes by, so it’s a routine, I don’t have places for tourism or to spend time. Because at the camp, there is no tourist centre, no filming centre and no industry.
DM: How are basic needs like food, water, healthcare, and education managed in the camp?
KML: It is a refugee relief organization that supports some materials, although it is insufficient, such as rice, lentils, flour and oil. All this is free from the Refugee Relief Organizations
DM: How do you stay connected to your culture, traditions, and language while living here?
KML: We adhere to and preserve our culture, traditions and language, because it is originally, and we are not ready to give up because of Morocco colonisation. It is our identity.
DM: What are the opportunities for education and employment within the camp?
KML: As for education, it is available. As for employment opportunities, they are very small, due to the lack of many jobs (financial weakness). There is no obstacle to education for children or youth, whether it is in Algeria or in the camps. People in camps are of equal income, financially weak, but being refugees are convinced of our reality.
DM: What are your hopes for the future, both for yourself and for Western Sahara?
KML: Our hopes are to get our land to be liberated from the Morocco regime. The reality is that we are the last colony in Africa, and we are sure that will be end soon. All of us in the support of this cause.
DM: How do you view the involvement of international actors in the Western Sahara issue?
KML: This has negatively affected us, because we gave many martyrs, and we are still giving more in this struggle.
No thanks to imperialist powers, that continue to support Morocco illegal occupation of our land, abuse our people and stealing our natural resource. It is shameful that some countries that make of been protector of human rights are opening supporting Morocco illegality.
But we believe that what is taken by force can only be recovered by force. We do not trust any amicable resolution anymore, otherwise its close 50 years and there was no solution to a conflict.
Previously, the voice of the Sahrawi people did not reach the world because of the media blackout, but now the Sahrawi youth are working to convey their voice to the world through the media and social media.
DM: What are your messages to the World?
KML: I want the world to know and understand that the Western Sahara is a just and undoubted issue, and I appeal that it should be supported in the media and politically.
They can support us through the media and social media campaigns.
Being a refugee is a bad experience, and you are aware of this with your visit. It is a bad thing to be displaced for decades and living away from the homeland. I hope that we will gain our independence soon.