HIt’s a trying moment for the Civil Guard crew of 20 and 170 migrants off the coast of Nouadhibou in Mauritania – but the outcome is uncertain. It was last Friday when the „Rio Tajo”, which is used as a rescue ship in North Africa, took people of Senegalese origin on board a wooden boat in Mauritanian waters.
The Spanish ship headed to the port of Nouadhibou in Mauritania to disembark the migrants, as is customary. But things got complicated when a gendarmerie officer, allegedly the head of the Mauritanian port, boarded it. After talking to the crew, the official refused to allow the migrants to disembark into Mauritanian territory.
As sources familiar with the case confirmed to WELT, a large sum of money was demanded so that the 170 people would not have to remain on board – a demand that Spanish police officers were unable or unwilling to meet.
The Spanish Ministry of the Interior is silent about the incident, and police sources even contacted journalists to announce the grave situation.
The Spanish military police are deployed in Mauritania with the aim of curbing illegal immigration to the Canary Islands. Networks of people smugglers will also be exposed. When boats are in distress, the police perform rescue operations. The Civil Guard works, as a general rule, closely with the Mauritanian authorities.
In cases like last Friday’s, the protocol is clear: the migrants are returned to a Mauritanian port and transferred to the care of the destitute state’s authorities; Often, deportations take place to Senegal, where many boat migrants come who want to go to Europe. In the past, according to reports from those close to the police union AGUC to WELT, sums of money were said to have secretly flowed in to ensure people were removed.
According to the AUGC, the situation aboard the Rio Tajo is „extremely complex” and involves a risk to the life and limb of officials. According to the union, chaos erupted when officers on the patrol boat had to fire in the air to maintain control of the rescued migrants, who, apparently out of fear, tried to control the boat in Nouadhibou and did not have to. Go to the beach in the Canary Islands.
Accordingly, it was decided to increase the number of officers on board the patrol boat and to mobilize all members of the Civil Administration of the Civil Guard in Nouadhibou.
Mauritania’s refusal to allow the landing soon led to serious tensions between the Spanish and Mauritanian authorities. It seems clear that the more hours pass without a solution being reached for the disembarkation of the migrants and the safety of the crew, the greater the turbulence on board. If the ship continues to the Canary Islands, it will take about three days.
Faced with the impasse, the ship „Rio Tajo” received an order from the Mauritanian Shipping Authority to leave the port. The Spanish patrol ship docked near the Mauritanian port on Monday morning, and it is flying, awaiting a solution to the crisis. Meanwhile, the captain, a civilian military police officer and employee of a Spanish shipping company, decided to activate an AIS tracking device so that all the ship’s movements could be monitored – and quickly located in case of an emergency.
Meanwhile, the captain took strict measures to maintain security on board, confining police officers to locked cabins and only letting them out to provide food to the migrants.
There has been no official statement yet from socialist Fernando Grande-Marlaska, who heads Spain’s interior ministry. Why didn’t the „Rio Tajo” sail into Spanish waters long ago to avoid further tensions that might endanger the safety of Spanish agents and the migrants themselves? unclear.
Although Mauritania is located about 700 kilometers south of the Canary Islands, it is a popular starting point for residents of the region who want to reach the European Union by boat, despite the great distance. Nouadhibou is home to a huge fishing port with hundreds of ships called Kayoko. From here, the immigrants embarked on a perilous journey. In the past few days and weeks, the number of arrivals in the Canary Islands has increased dramatically. The authorities expect the situation to deteriorate further in the fall.