Brussels, 31 Oct 2015 (SPS) - Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) on Friday sent a letter to EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management, Christos Stylianides, urging him to "give new financial aid" to the Sahrawi refugees, severely hit by the recent torrential rains which devastated several camps in Tindouf area.
"As MEPs, we ask the European Commission to play a leading role in the management of this crisis, and to grant further financial aid to respond to this humanitarian disaster, as the Sahrawi refugee camps are depending only on international aid," they wrote in their letter.
Expressing "deep concern" of the European Parliament over the humanitarian crisis currently affecting flood-hit Western Sahara, the parliamentarians called for "greater international solidarity with the Sahrawi refugees.”
"In anticipation of a political solution to the question of Western Sahara, we call for greater international solidarity with the Sahrawi refugees who have been living for almost 40 years in Tindouf (Algeria), in a harsh desert climate, with a limited access to basic resources, "they added.
This unusual phenomenon has created "an emergency situation", flooding and destroying whole sections of the camps which served as shelter for some 90,000 most vulnerable Sahrawi refugees in south-western Algeria, they stressed. (SPS)
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