SPAIN: Spain and Mauritania agreed yesterday to operate joint coastal patrols and target illegal people-trafficking networks to deter thousands of African migrants from trying to reach Europe by sea.
Mauritania has called for international help to stem the exodus from its northern coast, where scores of young men from around west Africa set out every night in rickety fishing boats bound for Spain's Canary Islands, almost 800 km (500 miles) away.
A Spanish government delegation met Mauritanian military chiefs on Thursday to discuss how to deal with a crisis the Spanish Red Cross estimates has cost more than 1,000 lives since the start of the year.
"The two sides have studied the best ways to handle the migration flows and have adopted a series of measures to tackle this serious humanitarian situation," the two governments said in a joint statement yesterday.
Under the agreement, Spain pledged to help Mauritania build and manage reception centres to receive detained migrants.
The two sides also agreed to launch joint coastal patrols.
Yahya Ould Sheikh Mohamed Vall, governor of Mauritania's northern port of Nouadhibou - a hub for migrants since Morocco tightened its northern borders under pressure from the European Union late last year - told the Spanish delegation he needed immediate aid of 60 million ouguiya (€188,000) a month.
However, Fr Jerome Otitoyomi Dukiya, a Nigerian priest who cares for migrants in Nouadhibou, said: "If they close off Nouadhibou it'll be Senegal or the Cape Verde Islands they leave from next - ever longer distances and even more who will die." - (Reuters)