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CONFIDENCE-BUILDING
MEASURES PROGRAMME (CBM)

Interview with Leyla Khalfallah

Legal Officer with MINURSO

Q: Could you tell us what work The CBM is not only about family
you are doing? visits. There are three pillars to the
programme: the family visits, the
The confidence-building measures telephone exchanges and seminars.
(CBM) are mainly a programme of However, the main activities are the
the United Nations High Commis- family visits and the telephone ex-
sioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The changes.
aim of this programme is to give the
people living in the Tindiouf camps Q: If people have been living in
the opportunity to visit each other. a refugee camp for more than
It's mainly a humanitarian pro- thirty years, how do you locate
gramme, trying to avoiding the poli- family members? as you might know, was to organize
tical aspects of it. As you may know, the referendum of Western Sahara
the refugees in the camps have been That's the work of TJNCHR. There is in 1991. However, due to diffe-
there for more than thirty years. a UNHCR office here and they pos- rent political aspects, we are still
Most of them have not met their fa- sess a list of people who are entitled providing logistical support through
milies and relatives during all this to benefit from these services. The our aircraft. In the beginning we also
time. The aim of this programme people have to go to the UNHCR of- provided cars and other forms of
is to bring these people from the fice and register in order to benefit. transport, but for the last couple of
outlying camps to what we call "the years UNHCR has received funding
territory", where the main cities of Our role is to provide the logistics from donors to the programme. We
Laayoune, Dahla and Smara are lo- for this programme. Our mandate, also provide the UN Police, that's
cated, and also to bring the people
from here to the outlying camps.
The visits last for five days -- they
come here, stay for five days and
then return.

There are criteria to be fulfilled to
participate in a family visit. They
have to prove that there are family
relationships between the persons
who are visiting each other, main-
ly father, mother, sister, brother,
spouse and husband. These criteria
were established by UNHCR in col-
laboration with the parties -- the
Moroccans and the Polisario.

There was an action plan laid down
in 2004. This determined how and
where these people can meet, etc.
It has, of course, been approved by
the two parties, the Polisario and the
Moroccans, in consultation with the
host country.

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