Nearly 3,000 Sahrawi children will spend the summer in Spain with the “Holidays in Peace” program

The Diplomat Around 2,800 children from the Sahrawi refugee camps in Tindouf, Algeria, will be able to enjoy a temporary stay in Spain during the summer months thanks to "Holidays in Peace 2026," a program in which nearly 37,500 Sahrawi children have participated since 2014. The Council of Ministers approved on Tuesday, at the proposal of the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, the instructions authorizing the temporary residence of these children and the granting of visas for the 170 counselors who will accompany them during their three-month stay in Spain. The children from the Sahrawi refugee camps will stay in Spain with Spanish families to enjoy a summer holiday. After the summer, they will return to their places of origin. Around 37,500 Sahrawi children have enjoyed their summer holidays in Spain thanks to this program since 2014, especially in the autonomous communities of Andalusia, Catalonia, Castile-La Mancha, the Basque Country, and Galicia. According to the Ministry, the program is part of “our country’s commitment to solidarity with the population of the Sahrawi refugee camps and has been running annually since the early 1990s, although the first arrivals of this group in Spain date back to 1979.” It has only been interrupted for two years, 2020 and 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. "Holidays in Peace" is managed by the Friends of the Sahrawi People associations, the Sahrawi National Delegation, and the Sahrawi delegations in the various autonomous communities. Four ministerial departments also participate in the program -the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation; the Ministry of the Interior; and the Ministry of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory-, in addition to the autonomous communities where the children reside.

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