The NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) accuses Mauritanian authorities of having committed "serious human rights violations" against migrants and asylum seekers between 2020 and early 2025, in a report published Wednesday.

Mauritania, a largely desert country in West Africa located on the Atlantic coast, has in recent years become a starting point for many migrants from across the continent trying to reach Europe by sea.

In its report, HRW denounces the agreements made between the European Union and Spain with Mauritania "to externalize the control of migratory flows", despite these human rights violations.

The report, based on hundreds of testimonies, documents cases of torture, rape, physical abuse, arbitrary arrests and detentions, extortion, and summary and collective expulsions. The witnesses interviewed accuse the Mauritanian police, coastguard, army, and gendarmerie of being the perpetrators of these acts.

Dozens of migrants who have passed through Mauritanian detention centers described to HRW "inhumane conditions and treatment," including lack of food, poor hygiene, and beatings by guards.

Mauritanian authorities have pushed migrants "back to remote locations along the borders with Senegal and Mali, where assistance is limited, and to the Kayes region of Mali, where the security situation puts people at risk," the HRW report said.

Earlier this year, a massive campaign of migrant deportations sparked fierce criticism in West Africa, prompting countries such as Mali and Senegal to express their outrage.

Mauritanian authorities described these expulsions as "routine" operations targeting people in an irregular situation, without providing figures on their scale.

Recently, several Mauritanian media outlets have put forward the figure of 28,000 expulsions since the beginning of 2025, without this having been confirmed by the authorities.

Thousands of migrants have lost their lives in recent years trying to reach Europe from Africa via the Spanish Canary Islands, often on overloaded boats.

In 2024 alone, the Spanish NGO Caminando Fronteras established a figure of 10,457 people dead or missing at sea.

The Canary Islands are the main gateway for migrants to Spain, despite the extremely dangerous maritime route from the northwest coast of Africa. According to the Spanish Ministry of the Interior, 46,843 migrants arrived in the archipelago in 2024, a figure far exceeding the record set in 2023 (39,910).

The pace has slowed significantly in recent months, with the number of arrivals in the Canaries falling by 46% between the first half of 2025 and the same period in 2024, according to the ministry.