EU strikes migration deal with Mauritania
The European Union has sealed a €230 million deal with Mauritania for funding a program to reduce irregular migration toward Europe, reports Euronews and AFP.
The deal, struck on March 7th, is the latest in a series of EU efforts to cooperate with African countries to clamp down on immigration, despite serious concerns over human rights violations. It is modeled on a controversial migration agreement that Tunisia and Brussels made in 2023.
European Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, praised the deal, saying it will allow Mauritania to manage migration and crack down on people smugglers.
“Our nation will not be a country for irregular migrants, and the European Union agrees with that. Mauritania will not receive them, nor lodge them in accordance with this common agreement”, said Mauritania’s Minister for the Economy and Sustainable Development, Abdessalam Ould Mohamed Saleh.
Spain has highlighted the migration issue, claiming they have struggled with an overflow of refugees reaching its Atlantic Ocean islands in the first two months of 2024, accounting for 12,000 migrants.
During the same period a year earlier, fewer than 2,000 migrants docked the shores of the Spanish Islands, according to the Spanish Interior Ministry.
READ: Spain: 1,000 migrants reach Canary Islands in 3 days
For years, Spain has deployed national police and civil guards in Mauritania to help local authorities stop migrants from the country and other nearby nations from leaving on the perilous journey.
As well as managing migration, Johansson also commented on the lives that the deal will save. She stated, “The route from Mauritania to the Canary Islands is one of the deadliest and most dangerous you can take”.
She continued saying “ This is why it is of crucial importance the we reinforce our partnership and also include support for the border management and for search-and-rescue”.
While thousands of migrants have survived the risky journey across the Atlantic, others have been less fortunate as many die or disappear along the way.
So far in 2024, at least 191 migrants have been reported dead or missing trying to reach the Canary Islands, according to the International Organization for Migrations Missing Migrants Project, although the figure is believed to be a conservative estimation. .
Euronews/ AFP.
