40 images Created 28 Sep 2015
ALGERIA: SAHRAWI, THE REFUGEES OF THE DESERT
In the Berber language “Sahrawi” means desert dweller. Made up of tribal Arab-Berber, the Sahrawis are the original inhabitants of Western Sahara; A land and a people that suffered from decades of discrimination and exploitation, during the Spanish colonization before, and during the violent invasion and military occupation of Morocco after. Since 1975, the Sahrawis have lost their land, their homes as well as their loved ones.%0DOn October 31st 1975, the King of Morocco Hassan II ordered the invasion of Western Sahara. Since then, the Sahrawi people are on the run, forced to escape from their native lands and go to the refugees’ camps in the oasis of Tindouf, in Algeria, a few kilometers away from the border with their beloved land that was pulled out from them, among the general indifference of the international community.%0DEvery year, in the refugees camp of Dakhla, in Algeria, on the border with Mauritania and the Western Sahara, a group of brave and committed Spanish volunteers, organizes the FiSahara, the world’s most remote and isolated film festivals, with the aim of promoting the cause of the Sahrawi people in the world; For four days, refugees from all the oasis of Tindouf and the occupied territories, meet here to talk about their situation, their fears and their hopes, and watch the many films that come from all over the world on issues of peace and human rights. A chance to be together, to be strong with each other, in the hope, one day, not too far away, to finally cross, as free people, that border line and minefield that now separates them from home.