Mauritanian security forces have committed “serious human rights violations” against migrants and asylum seekers ranging from torture to rape over the past five years, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday in a report.
The country has become a key staging post for undocumented migrants from across the African continent who take a dangerous sea route from west Africa to Europe, with many heading for Spain.
The rights group said that the abuses were “exacerbated” by the European Union and Spain which had continued to outsource their immigration management to Mauritania, including by supporting its border and migration control authorities.
The 142-page report covered violations between 2020 and early 2025 committed by the Mauritanian police, coast guard, navy, gendarmerie and army during border and migration control.
The report said the victims were largely West and Central Africans “seeking to leave or transit the country”.
“For years, Mauritanian authorities followed an abusive migration control playbook — sadly common across North Africa — by violating the rights of African migrants from other regions,” said Lauren Seibert, HRW refugee and migrant rights researcher.
Those violations included torture, rape and violence as well as sexual harassment, arbitrary arrests and detention, theft, and collective expulsions, according to the report.
However Mauritania’s government has taken recent steps that “may improve protection for migrants and their rights”, HRW said.
It added that the EU and Spain should assure that their cooperation with Mauritania prioritizes rights and saving lives.
Thousands of would-be migrants have died in recent years seeking to make the sea trip from North Africa to Spain, particularly to Spain’s Canary Islands off the northwest coast of Africa.
HRW interviewed 223 people while compiling the report, including more than 100 migrants and asylum seekers from Africa.
It additionally examined evidence and visited migrant detention centres.
In total, HRW documented abuses against 77 men, women, and children who were migrants or asylum seekers and a Mauritanian man.
In 2024 alone, a record 46,843 people arrived by boat in Spain’s Canary Islands, while the rate fell to about 11,500 between January and July of 2025, according to Madrid.
HRW said the government of Mauritania had rejected many of the allegations in the report, while the EU said its partnership with Mauritania was “solidly anchored” in respect for rights.
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© Agence France-Presse
