<h6><strong>Eduardo González</strong></h6> <h4><strong>The People´s Parliamentary Group in Congress has urged the Government to “urgently” enable an extraordinary humanitarian aid fund and to include, in the next General State Budget, an item for the Sahrawi population of the refugee camps in Tindouf (Algeria).</strong></h4> In a non-legislative proposal presented on August 30 for debate in the Plenary Session of the Lower House, the People`s Group recalls that both the president of the State Federation of Institutions in Solidarity with the Sahara (FEDISSAH) and the General Coordinator of the MUNDUBAT Foundation made it “crystal clear” on July 11, during their appearances before the Commission for International Cooperation for Development of Congress, “the absolute deterioration of the living conditions affecting the almost 180,000 Sahrawi refugees residing in the Tindouf Camps (Algeria) and the food emergency that affects them and that no longer admits delay in the response.” Since November 2023, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) has reduced emergency food rations by 30 percent, and the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and other armed conflicts around the world have caused excessive inflation of food prices on the international market, as well as a significant reduction in funding for humanitarian programmes by international agencies, the PP motion continues. All of this, it warns, has led to a “noticeable worsening of nutritional indicators, in particular anaemia rates among 75 percent of pregnant women and infants, as well as malnutrition and stunting among 50 percent of the child population under five years of age.” On the other hand, almost 90 percent of the Sahrawi population residing in the Tindouf Refugee Camps suffers from food insecurity or is at risk of falling into it, according to the 2024-2025 Response Plan agreed for this humanitarian emergency by a consortium of 28 UN entities and NGOs working in the area. For all these reasons, the Popular Parliamentary Group presents a Non-Law Proposal by which the Congress of Deputies urges the Government to "urgently enable an extraordinary humanitarian aid fund to alleviate the current extremely serious situation suffered by the Sahrawi refugee population" and to "include, in the next General State Budget, a budget to guarantee the sufficiency of food and basic necessities in the Tindouf refugee camps.
