Mauritania and Spain agreed Wednesday to cooperate to manage migrant flows, during a

visit by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to the West African country as his

government faces an upsurge in migrant arrivals.

The two countries expressed “their commitment to work together to promote safe, orderly

and regular migration” and guarantee “the fair and humane treatment of migrants”, in a joint

declaration.

Nearly every day, Spain’s coastguard rescues a boat carrying dozens of African migrants

towards the Canary Islands off the northwest coast of Africa. The Atlantic route is perilous

due to the strong currents, with thousands of deaths and disappearances every year on

overloaded, often unseaworthy boats.

Sanchez arrived in Mauritania’s capital Nouakchott on Tuesday, marking the start of a

three-day trip that also takes in The Gambia and Senegal — three key countries in the

migration crisis. Alongside the joint declaration, Spain and Mauritania have signed a

memorandum of understanding to implement “a pilot project for the selection of Mauritanian

workers in their country of origin” to work in Spain, according to a separate document sent

to AFP on Tuesday, without giving figures. It includes “circular migration programmes with

a particular focus on young people and women”, the joint declaration said.

Madrid estimates there are some 200,000 people in Mauritania waiting to go to the

Canaries. Between January 1 and August 15 this year, 22,304 migrants reached the

Islands, compared with 9,864 in the same period in 2023 — an increase of 126 percent,

according to interior ministry figures. Across all of Spain, there were 31,155 arrivals up to

mid-August, a 66.2-percent increase on the 18,745 a year earlier.