Washington - The expulsion by Algeria of Syrian refugees, including women and children, to Moroccan borders was condemned by US experts as immoral and shocking, all the more as this act comes at a time where the international community, and not only the Arab-Islamic nation, is concerned by the serious humanitarian situation in this country.
"How can civilized nations turn their back to desperate Syrians seeking refuge" wonders Peter Pham, head of the Atlantic council's African center, who called this a "regrettable gesture".
While stressing that he was not surprised by this act, the expert noted that the Algerian regime has been for a long time disregarding all international conventions related to refugees' rights by allowing a guerilla group to sequester on its territory (Tindouf camps) populations for cynical considerations.
Peter Pham also argues that by expelling Syrian refugees, the Algerian authorities are violating neighborliness principles and seriously jeopardizing the region peoples' aspirations to economic integration.
For Joe Grieboski, chairman of the administrative board of the Institute on Religion and Public Policy (IRPP), Washington, considers that this "immoral" expulsion of Syrian refugees experiencing an extremely vulnerable situation is a "typical" practice by Algerian authorities who are once again "shying away from their international obligations".
"It is no surprise", says Grieboski, knowing that for three decades now Algerian authorities have not been concerned and did not show any sign of humanitarian feeling for sub-Sahran refugees on its borders not for the plague of populations sequestered in the Tindouf camps.
This deportation is actually a form of support to Bashar Al-Assad's regime and shows that the Algerian regime does not heed the tragedy experienced by the Syrians, he went on.
By expelling the Syrian refugees, Algerian authorities fail to show any empathy for a humanitarian tragedy, he charged.