Hidden migrants due to huge cut in arrivals to Europe from Mauritania. migration

Note: Al Jazeera is hiding some details of interviewees, such as surnames, to protect their identities.

Nouakchott, Mauritania – In her dimly lit apartment in a quiet suburb of Nouakchott, Francina gathered clothes scattered on a low bed in the corner. Insects gathered on the floor.

The 23-year-old, a native of the Republic of Congo, has been alone on the street for as long as she can remember. She was first displaced after her parents were killed in a bloody conflict in Congo, after which she fled to Mali, where a fellow Congolese man placed her. However, when the woman who welcomed him died, he was forced to take to the streets.

When Francina arrived in neighboring Mauritania in 2023, things were stable at first.

The locals welcomed her and she got a job as a hostess in the capital. But beginning last year, police officers in white buses began approaching people “who looked like migrants” on the streets, grabbing them and detaining them for deportation, he said.

“Now, we can’t go out,” she told Al Jazeera. “Sometimes we ask people who have papers to go and buy bread for us.

“(The police) have already caught me twice, and they asked me to pay 25,000 Mauritanian ouguiya ($623) each time. It is too expensive for me.”

He is one of four people in Nouakchott who told Al Jazeera they fear being deported or worry about bribes being paid by the government amid a massive deportation campaign. They have resorted to hiding in the shadows in the land where they once felt welcome, leaving quietly at dusk and crawling back into the darkness.

Rights groups, including the UN Expert Panel, have raised concerns about the legality of arrests and forced deportations under international refugee law. Some have accused authorities of complicating the process of obtaining legal papers by deliberately delaying procedures to limit the number of people who stay.

Al Jazeera has contacted police and government officials in Mauritania for comment.

Authorities have said in the past that they are only targeting undocumented people.

Typically, migrants are arrested and deported without prior notice, with some unable to take their valuables with them. Mauritanian media have reported that hundreds of deportations of undocumented migrants took place in 2025, as well as those whose permits had expired.

Human Rights Watch, citing government figures, said 28,000 people were “expelled” in the first six months of 2025. Al Jazeera was unable to independently verify that figure.

‘We need them here’

Aicha, who is from Sierra Leone, told Al Jazeera that authorities captured her in a market in February. He said police took him to the border with Senegal, despite having a legal migration permit to work in Mauritania.

Authorities confiscated her phone and asked her to pay a bribe, but she refused, she said, hoping her documents would protect her. She has since found her way back to Mauritania, but only goes out when necessary.

Others arrested by police, including in their own homes, were reportedly beaten in custody and said their valuables were stolen.

Some local people are angry with the action. Large numbers of young migrants lined up on the capital’s wide streets to provide cheap services as plumbers or electricians or to sell everyday items. But most have now disappeared.

“We need them here,” said a business owner who employs documented and irregular immigrants.

Decline in departure of migrants from Mauritania

Mauritania, a vast, sparsely populated desert country with a population of just 4.5 million, stretches along the edge of northwest Africa.

It is relatively close to the Canary Islands, a Spanish enclave closer to Africa than Europe, making it a popular departure point for migrants facing the deadly Atlantic route to the Guinea coast.

In 2023, the number of migrants leaving Mauritania rose to a record. Migrant advocacy group Caminando Fronteras (CF) said in a report that of the 7,270 people who arrived in the Canaries in January 2024, about 80 percent came from Mauritania.

Tension has risen in the Sahel region from Mali to Niger, where coups and attacks by various armed groups have prompted some people to flee and forced hundreds from their homes.

In Mauritania, authorities have blamed trafficking gangs and increased arrests of suspects since last year.

On 16 April, police said they arrested members of two networks, including people from Mauritania and a “neighboring country”. Authorities also arrested 12 people aboard a boat bound for the Canaries.

To stem the flow of migrants, the EU has sent money to Mauritania, Niger and Morocco to support measures that prevent undocumented people from boarding rickety boats that often capsize.

However, Niger’s role as Europe’s bulwark collapsed when the military seized power in a coup in 2023 and ousted the pro-European democratic government. Niamey has since turned away from its former Western allies and toward Russia.

In February 2023, European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen visited President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani in the capital of Mauritania to sign a 210 million euro ($235m) “Migrant Partnership Agreement” – the EU said the agreement was to intensify “border security cooperation” with the EU border agency Frontex and dismantle smuggling networks. The bloc has since committed two more packages: $100 million focused on Mauritania’s economic growth, social cohesion and migration management, as well as an additional 4 million euros ($4.49 million) in humanitarian assistance.

Hassan Ould Moctar, a lecturer at SOAS University of London, United Kingdom, and author of After Border Externalization, said Mauritania appears to be “quite effective” as migrant arrivals from the country to the Canary Islands fell by more than 80 percent between April and December 2025 compared to the previous year.

“For Mauritania, it’s about a security issue, but it’s also about where its interests intersect with the interests of the EU,” Mocter said, adding that Mauritania is keen to keep crime numbers down through surveillance.

However, removing undocumented immigrants often doesn’t achieve those results, he said.

“From my research, I’ve seen that to avoid the overlap between irregular migration and crime, (countries should) improve conditions of entry and residence so that you don’t push people into the underground economy,” he said.

“If you make it harder for people, there will be more blurred lines between migration… routes are rerouted; they are never stopped. So they are doing something that is counterproductive.”

mix for survival

Mohammed, a 41-year-old Nigerian asylum seeker, had lived in Mauritania for about four years before police began arresting him.

He first fled Togo after the rise of the armed group Boko Haram.

He had studied at an informal Islamic school in Nigeria’s Borno state, where Boko Haram originated, with some members of the group and fled when they began pressuring him to join, he said.

As a Muslim, he sought his way to Mauritania, in the hope that he would settle in a place where the majority of people would practice his faith. Although Mohammed registered himself with the Mauritania office of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), he said his documents have still not been processed and he has also been arrested despite disclosing his status.

“They don’t care whether you are an asylum seeker or not,” Mohammed, who works in a small private school, told Al Jazeera. He said he was detained along with many others in a dirty room where daily prayers were impossible. The guards gave them poorly cooked food, he said. He was released only after a friendly local man he knew bribed the police.

Now he tries to blend in with the locals to avoid arrest, wearing the usual flowing boubou robe over a button-down shirt and styling his normally textured hair into a sleek finish.

Mohammed accused authorities of arresting people based on their skin color and nationality, saying, “If I didn’t do this, there is no guarantee that I would get home today.” “They don’t arrest fair gardeners because that’s what they are.”

As people like him try to find new ways to survive in Mauritania, migrants are also innovating.

Researcher Moctar said more people are now leaving from Gambia and Guinea, which are further down the coast. Boat trips from those countries are longer and therefore more dangerous.

Even Francina, who lives in Nouakchott, is looking for an open door.

“My dream is to become a doctor one day,” she said. Although she is currently working a low-skilled job in Nouakchott, she said her career dreams fuel her daily.

“If I could find a way to get to Canada or America or Europe, I would take it.”