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In Algeria, young children are recruited

In Algeria, young children are recruited

A group of MEPs addressed a question – with a request for a written reply – to the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, about a phenomenon that has been denounced several times by international organizations, including the UN: the recruitment of child soldiers by the polisario, under the supervision of the Algerian army. 
The polisario front, a separatist movement supported by Algeria, has been systematically engaging in this odious practice of exploiting hundreds of Moroccan Saharawi children for years. The separatists kidnap children at a very young age from their families who live sequestered in the Tindouf camps in Algeria, in order to use them against Morocco and its territorial integrity.
This scandalous practice, which refers to the paidomazoma  and evokes nightmarish memories of a past that was thought to be over, exists today on Algerian soil. Children are subjected to military training, converted and trained in shooting, among other things, instead of playing, being educated and enjoying their childhood in decent living conditions. Their enrolment stars at a very young age, in order to turn them into war machines that do not hesitate to execute their own parents or friends. 
This questioning comes shortly after the 46ème session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, which was an opportunity for several activists and human rights organizations to denounce the violations committed against children in the Tindouf camps in Algeria and their forced recruitment into the polisario militias.
Young children:
According to the group of MEPs, the polisario henchmen do not hesitate to recruit children aged between 12 and 13 as soldiers and parade them around. Several governmental organizations and international media have denounced, “this odious violates the fundamental rights of children”. European media, they add to the question submitted, have published articles illustrated with photos and videos showing children in uniform participating in a military parade on the Algerian soil. These photos and videos, MEPs point out, “testify to the increasing and worrying extent of this phenomenon in the Tindouf camps in Algeria”.
On the basis of this irrefutable evidence, MEPs ask what measures the European External Action Service intends to take to protect the right of these children in the military camps and prevent their exploitation in the future, while questioning Josep Borrel on the measures he intends to take to constrain Algeria to respect its international commitments regarding violations of the rights of the child committed on its soil.
It is noted that, since the onset of the Sahara dispute, nearly 8,000 children have been abducted and deported for military training abroad, including in Algeria, Cuba, Libya, Syria and Venezuela, said the expert in international relations, Metteo Dominici before the Human Rioghts Council in Geneva. Mr. Dominici spoke out against the videos published by the propaganda machine of the polisario and Algeria showing children being recruited and trained for war, which were filmed in the Tindouf camps on the Algerian soil after breaking the UN ceasefire on 13 November 2020.
This forced recruitment of children continues to enjoy incomprehensible impunity, even though it is a flagrant violation of international treaties on the protection and defense of children’s rights. It is an international crime, which requires a criminal prosecution and oversight for all parties involved, at the international level.
 

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