GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Along with 122 Palestinians from the Gaza Strip detained in a temporary refugee camp in Tamanrasset province in southern Algeria, Mahmoud awaits the decision of the Algerian government to release them so they can continue their journey to Europe. They had been arrested during the first half of October.
Mahmoud, 23, who did not want to reveal his full name, told Al-Monitor that he reached the border in the desert of southern Algeria with the assistance of smugglers who took him by land from Mauritania through the Malian desert to Algeria, where he arrived Oct. 9. He was planning to travel to the Spanish city of Melilla on Moroccan territories, then by sea to Spain before continuing by land to another European Union country.
