Spain spends between five and six million a year on pensions for the Saharawis of the "desert police"

• Polisario Front Suspends Relations with the Government

• Sáhara Sánchez calls the agreement with Mohamed VI a "diplomatic milestone"

Spain

spends an average of six million euros each year on pensions for Saharawi veterans who served in the Nomadic Troops before decolonization.

has not assumed

when in 2020 it was decided to group all the powers on pensions and passive classes under its umbrella.

Precisely, the

of last April 6 confirmed that these pensions will continue to depend on the

A couple of days later, the Polisario Front broke off relations with the Spanish government due to Pedro Sánchez's recent change of position on the Sahara.

The data on pensions paid in the last six years suggest that pensioners are fewer and fewer.

These payments have been made since 1977, a year after Spain abandoned what had been the province of Western Sahara.

In the desert was the so-called

was later derived .

Their powers were typical of the Police: maintaining public order, guarding borders, investigating crimes... Some of those police officers were Saharawi, and after decolonization they were recognized as having the right to receive a pension from the

According to Defense data from just a few days ago, in 2021 there were 1,102 recipients of these pensions, who received a total of

5,810,031 euros.

In 2016, the oldest year for which data has been obtained, there were 1,338 pension recipients, who were paid 6,635,144 euros.

Between 2016 and 2021, the number of pensioners and spending have been gradually declining.

In 2017 there were 1,315 pensioners, in 2018, 1,295... There is only one exception, that of 2019, when there were three more pensioners than in 2018, perhaps because the right to receive payment was recognized for some people.

When the

some agents of the

joined the Polisario Front, while others were imprisoned... by the Polisario Front.

The BOE of last week modifies some points of the basic structure of the Ministry of Defense "in order to guarantee, within the regulatory framework, the due continuity of the provision of public services, in this case in terms of pensions of the component personnel of the territorial police of the Sahara and of the special units of West Africa", he explains.

Thus, the payments will be dependent on the

and the "recognition" of these pensioners will be the responsibility of the

Conforms to The Trust Project criteria

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• Ministry of Defence

• Occidental Sahara

• Social Security

• pensions