Every month for the last two years, - food aid in the camp was suspended for one month in September 2013- incidents oppose HCR with refugees. After each control, HCR takes out several persons out of the list of refugees and deactivate their cards enabling access to food aid

Summy Walet Ollagh and her family found themselves among the ‘deactivated’. She fled with her seven children the Malian municipality of Lerneb near the border with Mauritania. With strong emotion, she testifies of her ordeal: « I have left Lerneb where I earn a living breeding cattle with my family. (With the war,) Everybody left town. Insecurity was too high. I was alone with my seven children. I had to cross to Mauritania. We registered at (the border town of) Fassala in 2012 before we got evacuated to Camp M’Berra by HCR one month later. Since March 2013, I do not get any more the ration of 12kg rice and a quarter litre of oil that HCR gives every person, every month. My kids and I, we live since then, thanks to the generosity of my neighbours and close ones who live with us in the refugee camp. »

According to various testimonies in the camp, no more than a hundred people out of 70 000 refugees have been «deactivated ». And indeed, one local witness confirms: « Several found themselves in the same situation as Summy but many got re-registered and are now again on the lists of the HCR such as is the case for the family of Aboubacrine Ag Mohamedoune who lives in M’Berra camp »

Indeed, other women, such as Tadina Walet Hachim and Agaicha Walet Hama de Tombouctou, have gone through that process: «we’ve been told that we were deactivated because we did not have any papers, though in 2012 it is HCR who registered us in Fassalla without Malian papers. Now if they claim something else, let them prove it! »

In Mauritania HCR recognises the status of refugees only for those who entered the country through the border town of Fassala. The thousands of people who passed through Gogui and Sélibaby, two Mauritanian places close to the Malian city of Kayes, never enjoyed the attention of HCR.

In Niger and Burkina, the number of refugees coming from North Mali is known precisely, however the number recorded by the HCR for the camp in M’Berra – 51 000 – and another 1000 in Nouakchott is way below reality. In Nouakchott more than 6000 refugees have been recorded by the ARVRA, the Organisation of Refugees Victims of Abuse: the HCR allegedly refuses to register exiled people who found asylum in other cities and in the countryside.

According to Imahta, a member of coordination of refugees’ community leaders, their organisation often called on the Mauritanian authorities, specifically to the Hakem, the government’s representative in Bassikounou and to the HCR. The coordination asked that they should not rely on identity papers for Malian refugees in order to administratively recognize their status as refugees. « On that matter, we had promises directly from the authorities » says Imatha « True Malian refugees will all see their rights vindicated because indeed there was by mistake some ‘deactivation’ of refugees but this will get corrected ».

Another witness, refugee from Timbuktu area, Elhadi Mohamed, shed a new light on the issue: « the deactivated persons don’t tell the truth; HCR had communicated back in early 2013 that it would go through each sector of the camp every three months to carry out checks on the spot. They warn that any absentee would be deactivated and in my opinion, this is what has happened. » But now, how to record and monitor families who also want to keep their nomadic way of life?

For Imahta, HCR is aware that there are many nomads who come in and get out of the refugee camp. «The controls are done to strike off the food distribution lists the persons who missed three successive food distribution events in a row. The deactivation agenda is also targeting Mauritanians who hide among Malian refugee in the camp of M’Berra».

The coordinator of Malian refugee in M’Berra, Mohamed Ag Malha, who works with the HCR, assures that the problem will be soon settled: «the issue does exist, some people have and are deactivated. I have received envoys from Human Rights Watch, and we talked about the issue ».

But the camp administrators have also to face a new problem linked to food distribution: the lack of rations. A Doctor without Border (MSF) employee in M’Berra who required anonymity said : « Things become more and more difficult for the refugees as during the distribution in February 2015 refugees received each only half of their usual ration, that is to say, they got six kilo of rice per head for that month. They were told that next month there might not be any distribution. And we know that it is already painful for many people who do not have means resource to buy something to eat. This could engender serious nutrition consequences and health problems if a solution is not quickly found. »