Refugee Registration: Algeria Violates International Law – Spanish Magazine

 »Algeria was the only state to issue a reservation on the census of refugees as a fundamental principle of the protection of their rights, which constitutes a violation of a ‘jus cogens’ norm of international law, i.e. a norm accepted by the international community as a whole which does not admit of contrary agreement and which, consequently, can only be modified by an international norm of the same nature, » explained the magazine in an article entitled  »Algeria backtracks on the protection of refugee rights ».

 »Algeria’s violations of its international commitments are nothing new, given the United Nations’ constant calls to prioritize its efforts to improve the promotion and protection of human rights », noted the publication, which specializes in Maghreb and Arab affairs.

Since 2011, the UN has been asking Algiers to take a census of the population in the Tindouf camps, suspecting that figures and indicators are being manipulated after the Algerians refused to identify and register them, maintains  »Atalayar », recalling that the World Food Programme (WFP) had also expressed its  »concern and suspicions about the sale and transfer of humanitarian aid outside the camps and to other neighboring countries.”

In the face of overwhelming support for the « Rabat Declaration on the Health of Refugees and Migrants », only the Algerian delegation, in isolation, embarked on a series of desperate maneuvers to try, in vain, to extract the reference to refugee registration from the Declaration, which recalls the inalienable responsibility of host states to carry out a registration and census of refugees on their territory, as an indispensable principle of protection.

Facilitated by the Kingdom of Morocco, the « Rabat Declaration » was negotiated in Geneva for several weeks prior to the 3rd Global Consultation, and was accepted by all the parties involved, including Algeria.

The about-turn by the Algerian delegation, which was the only country to express reservations on the paragraph relating to the registration of refugees, demonstrates, if proof were needed, its feverishness with regard to the issue of registering the populations of the Tindouf camps on its own territory.