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5h ago

HRW Report Accuses Mauritania of Grave Abuses Against Migrants

The group faults EU and Spanish migration deals for outsourcing border control despite the alleged violations it documents.

L’ONG Human Rights Watch dénonce de « graves violations des droits humains » à l’encontre de migrants en Mauritanie, dans un rapport publié mercredi 27 août 2025. (Un migrant expulsé de Mauritanie entre dans un centre temporaire de la Croix-Rouge).
Un groupe de travailleurs migrants mauritaniens se reposent dans un refuge à Rosso, au Sénégal, le 20 mars 2025.
Un bateau "cayuco" en provenance de Mauritanie avec des migrants à son bord arrive au port de la Restinga, sur l'île canarienne d'El Hierro, le 23 novembre 2024 en Espagne
Des passagers provenant de la rive mauritanienne du fleuve Sénégal débarquent d'une pirogue à Rosso, au Sénégal, le 20 mars 2025

Overview

  • The report covers 2020 through early 2025 and, drawing on hundreds of testimonies, alleges torture, rape, beatings, arbitrary arrests, extortion, and collective expulsions by police, gendarmes, soldiers, and the coast guard.
  • Witnesses describe inhuman conditions in Mauritanian detention centers, including scarce food, poor hygiene, and assaults by guards.
  • HRW says authorities expelled people to remote areas along the Senegal and Mali borders, including Mali’s Kayes region, where assistance and security are limited.
  • A large removal campaign earlier this year prompted objections from Mali and Senegal, while Mauritania characterized the expulsions as routine actions against irregular migrants and provided no totals.
  • Local media have cited 28,000 expulsions in 2025 without official confirmation; Spain recorded 46,843 arrivals to the Canary Islands in 2024 and a 46% drop in the first half of 2025, as an NGO counted 10,457 dead or missing at sea last year.