Head down to the newly renovated Real Patisserie in Hove for a slice of French quiche or one of those authentic flaky croissants and on the walls will be photos and interviews with people from the little known territory of Western Sahara.

The décor is not some strange interiors fad. To mark the café’s reopening and last week’s International Refugee Day, photographer Robert Griffin and journalist Stefan Simanowitz have commandeered the space for a month-long exhibition.

Disgusted by what he saw on a trip to Western Sahara – a former Spanish colony subject to occupation by neighbouring Morocco for the past 34 years, where 165,000 Saharawi people live in four refugee camps in the Algerian desert – Simanowitz is seeking to raise awareness of the Saharawi’s plight.

He first became aware of the situation when he was despatched to cover FiSahara by the Independent. FiSahara, or Festival Internacional de Cine del Sahara, is the world’s most remote film festival, set in the Dakhla refugee camp in the Algerian desert, 130 miles from the nearest town.

“I was shocked at my own ignorance about the situation when I first went out,” Simanowitz says. “But then I realised I was not alone. So little is known about this dreadful crisis, and what is worse is that it has been going on for three decades.”

Gordon Brown was asked for his opinion about the region when he was Prime Minister by Conservative MP Andrew Murrison; his vague response revealed even the man then in charge of the country was unaware of the situation – or even that he knew it was a country.

The former Spanish colony was initially divided between Morocco and Mauritania by the Spanish when they withdrew in 1976.

But at the same time the Western Saharan independence movement, the Polisario Front, declared creation of an independent state. A brutal 15-year war ensued between Polisario and the Moroccans. The Mauritanians withdrew in 1979.

In 1991 a ceasefire was declared and under the terms of a UN agreement a referendum for self-determination was promised. Nineteen years later the Saharawi are still awaiting that referendum.

One of the eight photos in the exhibition focuses on the wall, a 2,500km fortified barrier which separates the Saharawis from their homeland. The shot features 19-year-old Ibrahim Hussein Leibeit whose leg was blown off below the knee by a landmine.

“He had been taking part in a march to the 1,550 mile-long fortified barrier built by the Moroccans,” says Simanowitz. “In a symbolic gesture, Ibrahim was attempting to get close enough to the wall to throw a pebble to the other side when he trod on the device.”

Given the coverage in Belfast, Berlin and Gaza, the lack of attention for another man-made divide seems even more surprising.

Simanowitz argues there are valuable natural resources – phosphates, essential for industrial agriculture, oil, gas and rich fishing waters – which have been obscuring the West’s desire to resolve the situation.

That shouldn’t be the case, he says. There is a need to combat the rise of Islamic militancy in West Africa and the Maghreb. Al-Qaeda has been operating in neighbouring Mauritania and Algeria, but despite 35 years of hardship, the Saharawi have remained moderate and Western-looking. They could, he thinks, be a bridge between the West and the Islamic Maghreb, but without action the situation might become hostile.

More pressing is the dreadful condition the displaced people are forced to live in.

“They are completely dependent on external supplies of food and water and face temperatures of 120 degrees and sandstorms,” he adds. “But they have an incredible spirit. And what Ibrahim said to me when we were discussing his people’s plight epitomises it: ‘I would gladly lose my other leg if it would mean my country could be free,’ he said.”

*The exhibition is free. To help the Saharawi refugees visit www.freesahara.ning.com or email freesaharacampaign@googlemail.com. Thanks to Nigel Swallow of North Laine photography, www.brightonphotography.com.