Brussels – On the backdrop of the embezzlement disclosures involving the Polisario and their mentor Algeria, several members of the European Parliament (MEPs) from different EU member states urged, on Monday night, the EU to halt sending humanitarian aid to the camps of Tindouf until a census of the population held in the camps is conducted.

The MEPs submitted a draft resolution requesting the European Commission to immediately stop sending humanitarian aid as long as the exact number of the camps’ population is not established through a census by the UN refugee agency (UNHCR).

The draft resolution slams Algeria for refusing to cooperate with the UNHCR to conduct a transparent census that would help curb the embezzlement of humanitarian aid by the Polisario.

The signatories of the resolution decried that the embezzlement network has been taking advantage of the generosity of the EU for years.

Recently, the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) released a report disclosing the fraudulent practices of massive aid embezzlement by Algeria and the Polisario.

The report disclosed that a large part of the humanitarian aid sent to the population in the camps of Tindouf gets diverted in the port of Oran. Only a small part of aid reaches the camp while the rests is often sold in markets in neighboring countries.

This embezzlement is mainly ascribed to the inflation of the number of the population in the Polisario-run camps in south-western Algeria.