A YOUNG Spanish woman who is being held hostage in the disputed Western Sahara region has appealed to her home authorities for help.
Mahyuba Mohammed Hamdidaf, 23, was visiting her biological mother and father several weeks ago in the refugee camp in Tindouf which has been their home for 40 years.
Although politically in Algeria, Tindouf is considered by its people to be in Western Sahara, and children brought up in the refugee camp visit numerous locations in Spain every summer to stay with families for their 'holidays in peace'.
Mahyuba has done this the other way around since she was eight years old, however – she was adopted by the Spanish family she was living with in Genovès (Valencia province) at age 11 and acquired Spanish nationality when she was 21, and has visited her 'real' parents in Tindouf every summer since 1999.
After being a straight-A student at school, Mahyuba studied a degree in Arabic, one of three languages she speaks including English, at Alicante University and has been working for the past year at the Marie Curie Care Foundation in London, where she was planning on starting a master's degree in humanities in September.
But her usual summer visit to her 'natural' parents changed all that – they confiscated her passport and mobile phone, and took her money off her, telling her they were not going to let her leave ever again.
She had been summoned out to the Saharan capital of Laayoune (El Aaiún) by her parents, who said her grandmother was very ill and about to pass away.
This, however, turned out to be a trap, and two months after she was due to return to London, Mahyuba remains in Laayoune.
On a few occasions, her biological parents allowed her to use their mobile telephone, meaning she has been able to call her adoptive parents and ask them to help get her out.
“She is tired of the situation and all she wants is to get out of there,” says her adoptive mother.
“Mahyuba is an adult and a free individual who has a right to choose where she wants to be and what she wants to do with her life – no parent can take that from her, and it is not a custody battle because she is over 18,” the young woman's Spanish family explains.
Spain's foreign affairs ministry says it has been on the case from the start, as has a 'violence against women' charity.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com