The camps for the civilian Jewish refugees were of a different character than the harsh labor camps. Generally speaking, all labor camps were harsh discipline camps with very bad health conditions and insufficient food, nearly water to drink and wash, very hot and very cold, barracks, tents or a hole in the desert, 10 to 12 hours working, diseases: diphtheria, dysentery and punishment for the slightest. The labor camps were under the responsibility of the 'Direction Industrielle et du travail' in Rabat, or of different kind of companies like the Mediterranean Niger Company, which formed a key role in the exploitation of the Trans Sahara Railway.
The camps for the civilian Jewish refugees were under the responsibility of the ‘Direction des Affaires Politique’ in Rabat. For these refugees three camps were designated: Sidi El Ayachi, Oued Zem and from 1942 onwards locations in a well-to-do suburb of Casablanca, named Aïn Sebaa. According to the testimony of the German-Jewish refugee Harry Adler, the refugee families were selected by the age of the children at their arrival in the port of Casablanca, the ones with young children went to Sidi EL Ayachi and the ones with older children were sent to Oued Zem. Not only he testifies about this selection, also the passengers of the ship Alsina came across the same.
During October, November and December 1941 the German Armistice Commission organized visits to some civilian and labor camps to control the character of the camps. They wrote reports of their visits and of their meetings with liaison officers of the Directorate of Political Affairs in Rabat and the Directorate of Industry and Work in Rabat. The main purpose of the control was to look if the camp had a military character or whether militarily significant. About the camps for Jewish refugees, Sidi El Ayachi and Oued Zem they wrote these were camps for ‘unerwünschte Ausländer’ (undesirable foreigners). These camps turned out to be no normal refugee shelter camps, but selection camps to work in the labor camps.