Rabat - Mahjouba Mohamed Hamdidaf, the young Saharawi who was held against her will in the Tindouf camps in Algeria, managed to escape from the camps on Tuesday, according to El Mundo.
As soon as she left the camps, the young Spanish citizen took refuge in the Spanish consulate in Algiers. She is expected to return to Spain later today.
Mahjouba retrieved her freedom with the help of a group of friends who drove her by car from the Tindouf camps to an Algerian gendarmerie located outside of the camps, according to Spanish website 20minutos.es.
The 23-year old woman was held by her biological parents since last August. Mayhuba, who was born in the Tindouf camps, settled in Spain in 1999 after she was adopted by a Spanish couple. In 2002 she became Spanish citizen. Ever since she has been visiting her family every summer.
The young woman was supposed to return home on August 18, but few days before her return, her biological family told her that she would never go back and they locked her. They also stripped her of her phone, though they allowed her to use it for some days in order to communicate with her family in Spain.
The case has also been widely denounced by Spanish civil society who pressured the Spanish government to take the necessary steps in order to help the Mahyuba retrieve her freedom.
A petition has been addressed to the Spanish Ministry of foreign affairs in order to take the necessary steps toward bringing the young woman to back to Spain.