The political use of Saharawi minors
Now that we are approaching the end of the summer, I did not want to stop remembering what happened annually until before the pandemic, and that unfortunately we have recovered again in 2022. I am referring to the political use of minors, in this case Sahrawis , under the pretext of his participation in the program 'Vacations in Peace'.
A program whose main objective, a priori, should be to get the Saharawi minors out of the extreme conditions of the desert for a while during the summer, where almost unthinkable temperatures are reached, give them medical attention or provide them with a balanced diet that gives them enough energy. But, on the contrary, due to the ideological and/or militant component of the adults who organize it, some foster families and the politicians who receive them end up turning into something much more perverse.
In addition, this has been happening during these dates, since due to bureaucratic issues this year the children's stay has been shorter and these situations are being repeated during these last days. Giving an example, we have the case of the reception of minors a couple of weeks ago by the Vice President of the Government of the Canary Islands, Román Rodríguez, a member of Nueva Canarias, that phantasmagorical party now belonging to the ship of mystery.
In view of the photos of said reception, we see, on the one hand, well-known politicians, along with various program managers, welcoming the minors at the Canary Islands Government headquarters, where Román Rodríguez declared "the permanent support of his Government to the Saharawi people and their just cause”, or that “in the Canary Islands we say that we are on the side of the Saharawi people in their fight for their right to freedom and self-determination”. On the other hand, we see boys and girls (some very young ) with a lost look, clueless, making faces of complicity with the desire that that grotesque end, trying to play, or simply while being used by adults, wondering what the hell they are doing there. This has been repeated, of course, in the Cabildo of Gran Canaria, also known as the official seat of the Polisario in the Islands, without forgetting the farewell at the seat of the Canarian Parliament just a few hours ago.
There are dozens of examples. To put some other, in 2014 the children who arrived in Zaragoza were received at the City Hall by the mayor and other relevant politicians, with the consequent photos together with the children with different badges for dissemination and political use. Likewise, that same year in Seville the annual 'March for Peace' was held, which "coincidentally" coincided with the arrival of the boys and girls who participated in the programme, with that year's motto "Andalusia demands Morocco's freedom for all Saharawi political prisoners". A slogan with an obvious political charge, but with the children at the forefront of the march sheltered in the respective propaganda banners. Likewise, in the Canary Islands, the Basque Country or Asturias on those same dates, concentrations were held, also with minors by flag and with the aforementioned photographic and media display.
Undoubtedly, it is striking as well as contemptible, the use in these tedious and endless acts of children with deficiencies of all kinds, in order to exploit the philanthropic feelings and generosity of the people who receive them and of those who contemplate these scenes . Some scenes that are repeated year after year since the beginning of the program, in all parts of the Spanish geography, where the children are received with the consequent guidelines in this regard set by the Polisario and the managers of the program in Spain.
It is pertinent to rescue the statements in a well-known social network by Antonia Pons, an important activist in favor of the Polisario and collaborator of the movement that manages the program in Spain, when she said that “the most important thing: you have to explain where they come from and why. It must be made clear that it is not a merely humanitarian program, but a political project and that, as foster parents, they must assume the commitment to participate in all the institutional acts that are programmed. That supporting a Saharawi child, the reception itself, is not only for a child with a name and surnames, but also support for a cause [...]”. We find another example in the book “Tres Miradas” (2018, 65-66) by Esperanza Jaén, another well-known activist, where she claimed this form of action by stating that “for all the children on Vacations in Peace, our welcome has to be militant. If our hosts do not participate in their cause, we are helping them to be forgotten, to continue to be ignored”.
To what extent it is lawful to resort to this type of persuasion techniques aimed at victimization and emotion, through those who still do not even have the capacity to rationalize or question what they advertise, is what should be discussed at this point. It is not about affirming that the little ones are unable to understand their world and think about what they are doing, but to a large extent they do it through the vital perspective of adults. The ethical problem, perhaps of lack of respect for their most basic rights, is observed when these adults do it for political purposes using a segment of the population that, due to age and by law, cannot participate in processes of this nature.
Thus, in principle, it is not so much the message that is intended to be transmitted through them (also), but rather the objective is to access our subconscious, the most affective and least rational part, making us react to it in a more emotional way. Therefore, ensuring the effectiveness of a propaganda message thanks to this way of using the children of an alleged humanitarian program, so that later it becomes more things, would be ethically and morally reprehensible to say the least.
It is on the page of Vacations in Peace of CEAS-Sahara where this mixture of the political with the humanitarian is visualized, and of the world of children with that of adults, where it is stated in its objectives that the program "consists of reception of children, between 8 and 12 years old approximately by Spanish families in each autonomous community, for two months in summer, which allows us to give greater visibility to the Saharawi cause […]. The general objective of Vacactions in Peace is to convey to the public and public authorities the urgency of resolving the situation in Western Sahara in a fair and definitive manner, enabling the Saharawi people to exercise their legitimate right to self-determination and with it the back to your country."
In fact, a Polisario leader stated in this regard that "we attach a very important political value to the issue of children, and we know that there are people who think that this is using children, but I prefer that the child be here than his father giving a rally there. I believe that each one has to use his own weapons [...] ”(Aguilar and Gracia, 2002: 180).
This situation today is completely normalized and is carried out without any external questioning due to the militancy towards the cause on the part of the actors involved in the entire process that the program consists of, but also due to the lack of interest and, consequently, of knowledge of this situation by a large part of public opinion, in general less aware of the political background of the matter, and whose sympathies towards the little ones when they are questioned about the subject unconsciously inhibits any other type of more cerebral analysis. What is inexcusable is that our local and regional politicians fall into the same mistake every year. It's the usual, the photo. Bridging the gap reminds something of those wealthy tourists who travel every year to places where the most basic needs are urgent, to catch a selfie with children and upload it to the networks. An act of 'romanticization' of poverty, but violating the rights of minors.
The Polisario and its friends in Spain also get their photo. Mass dissemination at the expense of children. Everyone wins, everyone except the small exploited. Next summer, the next chapter.