African refugees in Ambra camp in Mauritania (Al Jazeera)

Nouakchott -

After struggling for years to convince the various countries of the Maghreb to curb irregular migration to its lands, the European Union today throws its weight on Mauritania, which suffers from a continuous influx of migrants and refugees towards its lands.

At a time when most of these countries were ignoring European pressures and continued to refuse any measure to return irregular refugees to them, it seems that Mauritania has recently begun to abandon its reservations to compromise with the old continent regarding the issue of migrants that is troubling it.

In their last visit to the country, both the President of the European Union, Ursula von der Leyen, and the Spanish government, Pedro Sanchez, confirmed - in front of Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Sheikh Al-Ghazouani - that the Union and Spain will allocate more than 500 million euros to Nouakchott to enhance its capabilities in the field of economic development and confront illegal immigration. Regular assistance and assistance to refugees located within the country's territory.

This visit awakened old security and social concerns in Mauritania, which is characterized by ethnic diversity, reflected in its geographical location linking the Maghreb region, West Africa, and sub-Saharan Africa.

The Mauritanian President (center) receives the Spanish Prime Minister and the President of the European Union (Al Jazeera)

Concern and controversy

Therefore, the visit of European officials caused widespread concern and controversy among Mauritanians, who were not comfortable with the phenomenon of immigration penetrating their fragile country, or with the idea of ​​settlement and integration, which might be the beginning of final stability for those fleeing the hell of a tense ocean, for fear of a demographic change that might be possible.

Mauritanian society has a complex mosaic structure, as it consists of two cultural groups:

  • The Beidan group, which consists of Hassaniya-speaking Arabs and Berbers, is the politically dominant group and represents approximately 80%.

  • However, what distinguishes Mauritania is that the parallel group, the Arab majority, is black and represents more than 20% of the population.

During the last ten years, Mauritania has received hundreds of thousands of refugees and immigrants who have begun to engage in various economic activities, and because most of them are Africans, it has become difficult to differentiate between them and black Mauritanians in the absence of a strategy that precisely controls the migration movement.

During protests that took place in the country last year, the police arrested dozens of foreign immigrants and residents who participated in demonstrations and serious riots in the capital, Nouakchott, and inland cities, claiming that they were citizens, and the authorities deported them to their country.

This problem has turned into a fateful challenge in light of the increasing influx of immigrants, the number of whom currently reside legally has reached 140,000 people, according to the national campaign to register, control and regulate the movement of immigrants within the country.

This is in addition to about 150,000 refugees in various locations across the country, most of them in the Ambra camp in the state of Hodh al-Sharqi, and hundreds of thousands of irregular migrants who have not been counted yet, according to the expectations of many observers.

The Secretary-General of the Ministry of Interior and Decentralization, Mohamed Mahfouz Ould Ibrahim, stressed that Mauritania will not be an alternative homeland for irregular migrants, and that European partners do not dare to put forward this request.

He added that the success of Mauritania's approach in controlling the flow of regular migrants and refugees within the country, and combating all forms of irregular migration, is the reason behind the European Union's support for it.

The European-Mauritanian summit meeting last week and the announcement of the allocation of more than 500 million euros (Al Jazeera)

Vague agreements

Speaking to Al Jazeera Net, the political analyst and civil activist against immigration, Mohamed Khaled Ahmed Salem Atoev, says that the vague and broad agreements, in many of their provisions, with the European Union will make Mauritania a station for hundreds of thousands - and perhaps millions - of African immigrants who are troubling European officials.

Ahmed Salem added that Mauritania - in light of a fragile economic, security, services and health structure - will most likely not bear this heavy burden of arrivals and returnees from the high seas.

He believes that the path seeking to integrate immigrants may lead - in the near term - to complete impotence and the cessation of public services, or economic paralysis and a security problem that will destabilize the country. In the long term, and with the adverse youth migration that Mauritania is witnessing towards America, it may have other consequences related to a demographic change in the population structure in the coming years.

Citizen Mohamed Ahmed (a merchant in the central market in Nouakchott) - speaking to Al Jazeera Net - fears a social and economic crisis as a result of the process of settling and integrating African immigrants.

He says, "It will have serious consequences for the country, both security and economically, given that most operators in the market prefer migrant workers because they demand low wages that the average citizen cannot work at all."

For this reason, Ahmed Salem warns against Mauritania neglecting its observed relative stability, which has made it the focus of European and Spanish attention as an ally that can play a role “larger than its real size” in achieving Europe’s strategies in the region with regard to curbing what he called the black torrent flowing through Africa.

On the other hand, civil activist Mokhtar Hamadi says that he cannot defend Mauritanian immigrants abroad, and remains silent when it comes to African immigrants in his country.

He stresses that the state must be vigilant and develop its security services and be strict in implementing laws related to combating immigration and avoiding risks, but while guaranteeing the rights of immigrants.

Value imbalances

Speaking to Al Jazeera Net, the researcher in sociology at the University of Nouakchott, Bab Sayed Ahmed Aal, says that there are value imbalances in society that may be what push him to take the risk of migration, including:

  • The Beidan group - which is dominant politically and economically - does not sanctify work in its nature and rejects it in its culture, which creates a vacuum for immigrants due to the urgent need for labor.

  • This group searches for extreme wealth without any preliminaries in a way that makes society adventurous, and immigration to the United States and the search for gold are only one of the repercussions and persistence of these values.

  • Mauritania also exists in a turbulent environment that suffers from problems of political stability, internal wars, and weak productive activities, which makes it a destination for the peoples of those countries in search of what they lost in their homelands, where they find the field open due to society’s reluctance to produce and its elevation of manual professions.

The researcher believes that the problem at hand now is how Mauritania, as a transit or host country, benefits - economically - from this huge number of displaced people and migrants, regardless of their levels and the nature of their motivations, as long as there is a need for them encouraged by society’s view of manual professions and work in general.

Source: Al Jazeera