Overview

• The 142-page report documents torture, rape, arbitrary detention, racist abuse, extortion, and inhumane confinement by multiple Mauritanian security forces from 2020 to early 2025, drawing on 223 interviews and verified cases involving 77 migrants and asylum seekers.
• Researchers describe mass removals to remote border areas in Mali and Senegal without due process, with the government reporting more than 28,000 expulsions in the first half of 2025.
• HRW links a €210 million EU partnership signed in 2024 and expanded Spanish assistance, including deployed police and civil guard, to harsher migration control practices, noting instances where Spanish officers were present during arrests.
• Authorities cite reforms including May 2025 standard operating procedures that prohibit collective expulsions and require screenings, as well as the temporary closure of some detention centers in July for rehabilitation.
• Spain recorded a record 46,843 arrivals to the Canary Islands in 2024 and about 11,500 between January and July 2025, and HRW urges the EU and Spain to condition cooperation on independent monitoring, accountability, and measures that prioritize saving lives.