Adala UK warmly welcomes the arrival today of a group of Saharawi children known as the Messengers of Peace to London Heathrow Airport, where they were received at 13:30 by members of the Saharawi community and supporters of the Western Sahara cause.

These children come from the Saharawi refugee camps in southwest Algeria, where tens of thousands of Saharawis have lived in forced exile for over five decades due to Morocco’s ongoing illegal occupation of Western Sahara. According to the United Nations, the Saharawi refugee population is one of the longest-standing protracted refugee situations in the world a stark reminder of the international community’s failure to uphold their fundamental right to self-determination.

Despite the harsh conditions of exile, the Saharawi people have demonstrated extraordinary resilience, maintaining access to education, healthcare, and democratic governance in their camps efforts repeatedly acknowledged by UN agencies and humanitarian organisations. They are often referred to as “the most organised refugees in the world,” a testament to their dignity, discipline, and collective commitment to justice.

The Messengers of Peace programme is a form of peaceful, grassroots diplomacy initiated by the Saharawi Republic (SADR) to give children a chance to experience life outside the camps, raise international awareness about the Saharawi people’s plight, and build lasting relationships with host communities. The initiative has been notably successful in Spain and Italy, where it has deepened public support for the Saharawi struggle and helped make Western Sahara a widely recognised human rights issue.

After more than twenty years of absence from the UK, the return of this programme marks a significant moment. It represents not only a cultural and humanitarian exchange, but also a peaceful act of resistance and awareness-building. It invites the British public to stand in solidarity with the Saharawi people and to support their right to freedom, justice, and dignity.

While these children visiting the UK bring a message of peace, we must not forget their peers in the Occupied Territories of Western Sahara, where Saharawi children continue to face daily violations of their human rights under Moroccan occupation. As documented by Adala UK in its official submission to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) during Morocco’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in 2016, Saharawi minors have been subjected to arbitrary detention, torture, discrimination in education, forced confessions, and psychological abuse all in violation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).

The UPR is a unique United Nations process which reviews the human rights records of all UN Member States every four to five years. It offers an opportunity for NGOs and civil society organisations like Adala UK to submit evidence and demand accountability for systemic violations. In our report, we highlighted the reality facing over 300 Saharawi children we interviewed in the Occupied Territories, revealing a pattern of fear, repression, and institutional neglect.

Our findings showed that Saharawi children lived in constant fear of security forces, were regularly harassed and assaulted, and in some cases sentenced to up to four years in prison often based solely on police statements or confessions obtained under duress. Complaints from victims and their families are rarely investigated and often suppressed through intimidation. Many families were too afraid to speak out, fearing reprisal.

These abuses violate multiple provisions of the UNCRC and international human rights law. They also represent a profound failure to uphold the core principle articulated in the Preamble of the Convention:

“The child should be fully prepared to live an individual life in society, and brought up in the spirit of peace, dignity, tolerance, freedom, equality and solidarity.”

Adala UK therefore reaffirms its call to the international community particularly the Human Rights Council and its Member States—to press the Moroccan government for full transparency, an end to the abuse of Saharawi minors, and immediate compliance with international child protection standards. We also urge the UK government to raise these concerns in bilateral and multilateral human rights forums.

We applaud the efforts of the Saharawi community in the UK and our partners in civil society who have made this initiative possible. We reaffirm our commitment to advocating for the inalienable rights of the Saharawi people especially their children until justice, dignity, and self-determination are realised for all.

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