The young Sahrawi, Saleh El Bachra, known as” Jamal”, was forced to leave his homeland in search of work abroad after being harassed many times and deprived of many job opportunities in Western Sahara, where he was a target for harassment ,intimidation and deprivation.
The young Sahrawi, born in the occupied Elaaiun , Western Sahara, in 1973, studied at the University of Rabat, then emigrated to the United States of America, where after 5 years of residence got his U.S. citizenship, came back after ten years of exile to his native homeland to settle down there and to search for work, but to no avail.
Upon returning home, the young Sahrawi tried to continue his postgraduate studies and thus the attempt to register his PhD in the Moroccan universities, but his requests were always met with rejection on unjustified grounds and without a reason.
Despite all this, the young Saharawi , known in his hometown as "Jamal", did not lose hope, and so proceeded to look for work to settle down in his hometown in western Sahara where he applied as he is a holder of certificates qualifications, and diplomas from different countries : A Bachelor degree in English literature from Morocco, a Graduate Certificate in Nonprofit Management from Northern Kentucky University USA, a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Northern Kentucky University USA,. To his surprise, whenever he gets a job offer, it is suddenly denied and rejected. When he asked around, he was told that there are higher instructions not to enable him settled down there as some specific departments from within the Moroccan administration did not want to see that happen. They looked at him as a threat because of his qualifications and the global network he developed from years of work and activism in USA and Europe.
In August 2011, he was selected for a position with the Foreign Affairs ministry as a high as a senior official, and was later summoned for an informal interview as part of a formality for recruitment. This interview took place in Rabat, Morocco , and he was told, where he was accepted to fill the position, that he would be called again soon to start the, He waited for months in vain till he went back there to Rabat, and was told that they had already recruited the people they wanted to leaving him behind. This happened without even sending him a letter or an email.
In mid-December of 2011, he was called by the human resources department in Terfaya province in order to provide a file for the position of a government official. Few days later, he was called and told that his name did not figure on the newly appointed officials’ list, and that he had a problem of his foreign Master’s degree diploma evaluation. His name was crossed out from the job list. When he made an inquiry at the Directorate of Human Resources in the Ministry of Interior in Rabat, the answer was that he lacked the administrative evaluation certificate to his Superior diploma obtained in the United States of America.Thiis was just a subterfuge as he already has an official evaluation certificate delivered to him by the Moroccan ministry of Higher Education, and is also published in Morocco’s official Record Bulletin.
In March of 2012, He was called again for another job position with an international organization operating in Western Sahara. He submitted his file and did the medical check up. As noted by many observers, there are always spies in every organization working in the Western Sahara. Therefore, it was no wonder that the Moroccan secret services got news of that job offer, and thus intervened with the NGO’s director to drop down the offer by telling him that he did not respect the usual administrative procedure.
Another thing he tried without having to deal with official job offers was to seek establishing his own business in the tourism section. This was also a total failure as he was always faced with obstacles and the harsh conditions and terms they would put on his way.
More than that, he used to own a wooden cabin by the beach at a place called” Amigriou” which the Moroccan authorities destroyed without any previous warning or notification. He filed a complaint to different departments but he never got any answer or compensation.
He wanted to find out why all these obstacles and why there was always an excuse not to let him lead a regular life, and so he made few inquiries here and there. The answer he got from different sources and places was that he was an unwanted person” Persona Non Grata” in Western Sahara. As he is an American citizen with great potentials, they obviously did not want him working there.
More useful information on Saleh El Bachra is the fact that has close ties with a numerous international organizations as he of his studies in the United States of America, lived and worked there. His studies and work experience there enabled him build a whole global network in USA, Europe, and in Africa. He is also very knowledgeable as to how decisions are made at the level of the USA and the lobbying tactics due to his work experience when he was an intern working for Congressman Joseph Pitts in Washington D.C.
Moreover, Jamal is the son of a former political prisoner and a former victim of the Moroccan secret detention centre"Megouna”. Saleh El Bachra has strong relationships with a large number of Sahrawi and international human rights activists as well as with many reporters and journalists and academics around the world. Besides, he is well connected to many diplomats and representatives from a number of embassies and organizations that operate in Morocco. This proves to be very annoying and frustrating for the Moroccan regime, as he is able to voice out his people concerns vis-a-vis the International community.
As for his educational background, besides the diplomas and and the qualifications listed before, he has a certificate of completion from the American Red Cross on “Orientation to International Services” beside a certificate in interpretation delivered by a Translation Bureau agency in USA. He is also a member of the World Arab Translator, and Member of Alumni association at the University of Kentucky, USA, and is fluent in Arabic, English, and French and able to communicate in Spanish.
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