Increasing HCR aid depends on census of Tindouf camps population, UNHCR head

Rabat - Increasing the HCR humanitarian aid to the Tindouf camps depends on taking a census of their populations, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, said on Thursday

  "To change the current situation (the reduction of aid) that is based on the HCR estimates, it is necessary to have a census that has nothing to do with the political process," Guterres told the two national channels.

    Guterres also said that Algeria opposes the census of Tindouf camps populations and that it provides figures higher than the UN estimates.

    "We have lowered our humanitarian aid based on our estimates which are lower than those of the Algerian authorities," he said.

    "Our decision was contested; to change it, it is necessary to have a census that is independent from the political process," he said.

   The UN official is currently visiting Morocco as part of a tour that has taken him to Algiers and Tindouf.