When richess becomes your curse

Dah is an 18 year old boy living with his family in the Refugee Camps of El Auin in the South-Western Algeria. He does not study, and never considered school to be of much importance. As he says "what can you do with an education here?" For him the most important thing is being able to contribute to his family´s income. It is not easy to get a job in the camps, but Dah is lucky and works with his father fixing cars. For Dah working is not just about filling the long days in the desert. His wish is that is mother can have more than just the basic things the family needs to survive. He wants her to be able to buy new clothes, to make a good dinner or get some new shoes for his little sister, things any boy would want for his mother. And, if he does not help, who will?

Ever since the Refugee Camps of Western Sahara was established in 1976, the Saharawi refugees have been dependent on aid given by the International Community. However, as time passes and politics change, the aid given to the camps is decreasing by the year, making the amount of food Dah´s mother can put on the dinner table less and less. Reports from the UNHCR and the World Food Program in 2007 estimated that one third of the children in the camps between 1 and 5 years old are chronically undernourised. The Norwegian Church Aid puts the number as high as 40%. When the International Community decides to decrease its aid to the refugees, it is families such as Dah´s that suffers, and it is the refugees themselves who must find a way to make up for the shortfall.

What is ironical, is that while Dah is working with is father fixing cars in the Sahara desert, huge amounts of his peoples resources is being shipped out of the occupied areas of Western Shara. The same countries that every years reduces their aid to the Refugee Camps is robbing Dah and his fellow Sharawis of their natural resources and of their future. From the beginning of this conflict Western Sahara´s resources have been at the very heart of the issue. The area is rich in fish stocks off the coast, large deposits of phosphate and even possible deposits of oil. Unfortunatly for the Saharawis their richess has become their curse. Even though the reasons for Marocco´s occupation of Western Sahara are many and complex, there is no doubt that foreign interests in the areas resourcess makes finding a solution more difficult.

In 2001 the European Union signed their free trade fishing agreements with Marocco. The agreement involves Maroccan waters and "waters under Maroccan control". Despite the fact that International Law clearly states that an occuping power is not allowed to exploit the resources of the occupied area without the consent of its people, Western Sahara´s fish resources is each day being shipped out of the area. The money ends up in the pockets of the Maroccan authorites. And the EU is not alone.

In August this year, the Norwegain company Yara was exposed after buying phosphate from the occupied areas of Western Sahara. Despite the fact that the company is partially stateown, and that the Norwegian goverment discourages trading that includes the occupied areas, Yara imported phosphate with a value of about 38.4 million Norwegian kroners. Even though the company insists the phosphate was only a one time shipment to use as a test in their new facilites, the value of the phosphate is 12 times what the Norwegian goverment gives in aid to the Refugee Camps each year. Maybe this is not a lot for a big company such as Yara, but for Dah and his family, it is money that could have meant a world in difference.

When countries and big companies such as Yara buys Western Sahara´s resources from the Maroccan government, they do not only act in a highly unethical manner. They also contribute to legitimize Marocco´s occupation. And while they are shipping out the areas richess, Dah is still left fixing cars in the Saharan desert.