Urgent Statement on the Arrest of Algerian Activists in the Sumud Flotilla

🗓️ Published on: 03/10/2025

The Trade Union Confederation of Productive Forces (COSYFOP) has learned with deep concern of the arrest of a group of Algerian activists by the Israeli occupation forces, following their participation in the Sumud Flotilla bound for Gaza. Among them is a young trade unionist affiliated with our Confederation. They have been transferred to Ketziot Prison in the Negev, notorious for its systematic violations of detainees’ rights.

We remind the Algerian government and its institutions of their constitutional and moral duty to protect Algerian citizens both inside and outside the country, and of their primary responsibility to act urgently to secure their release and safeguard their physical and moral integrity. It is unacceptable for the Algerian state to remain completely silent, even in the form of a simple official statement, while many Western governments are moving swiftly and effectively to repatriate their citizens detained under the same circumstances.

The Trade Union Confederation of Productive Forces (COSYFOP) :

1. Calls on the Algerian authorities to take immediate and public action with international bodies, in particular the United Nations and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, to secure the release of the Algerian detainees.
2. Urges Algerian civil society, all independent trade unions, and human rights organizations to express their full solidarity with the detainees and their families.
3. Holds the Algerian government fully accountable, politically and morally, for any harm that may be inflicted on our citizens in Israeli prisons.

The silence of the Algerian state at such a critical moment constitutes a serious failure in fulfilling its duties toward its citizens. We therefore demand a clear and courageous national stance, worthy of the sacrifices of those young people who took part in the Sumud Flotilla in support of the Palestinian people and their just cause.

Freedom for the Algerian detainees… Freedom for all the activists of the Sumud Flotilla.

Algiers, October 3, 2025

The Executive Committee