Pressure grows on Mauritania to let migrants land

Mauritania faced growing international pressure yesterday to allow at least 400 Asian and African migrants aboard a stranded freighter off its coast to disembark, as concerns grew over their health and safety.

Mauritania has refused to accept the Marine 1, which is believed to have set sail from Guinea on its way to Spain's Canary Islands. The ship sent out an SOS signal after its motors broke down in international waters off Senegal on February 2.

It was intercepted the following day by a Spanish coastguard vessel which towed the freighter to its position off Mauritania's northern fishing port of Nouadhibou. The Marine 1's passengers are the latest group of Europe-bound migrants to find themselves stranded at sea while countries argue over them.

A group of African migrants spent days stranded on a Spanish fishing boat off Malta last July as Mediterranean states negotiated over their fate.

Representatives of the Mauritanian Red Crescent, Spanish Red Cross and International Organisation for Migration (IOM) travelled by boat to the stranded vessel yesterday to deliver drinking water and emergency food supplies.

They also wanted to try to ascertain the exact number and nationality of the migrants on board, who are generally thought to be from African countries, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh.

Spain, which is on the front line of Europe's efforts to stem an influx of illegal job-seekers, has been lobbying Mauritania to take responsibility for the stranded migrants.

Madrid has also asked Senegal and Guinea whether they would be willing to allow them ashore. The UN refugee agency UNHCR yesterday added its voice to calls for the freighter to be allowed to enter a safe port.

"UNHCR urges, on humanitarian grounds, that people on board this ship be allowed to disembark as soon as possible," George Okoth-Obbo, UNHCR Director for Protection, said.

"At this point in time, the main priority should be to help these people and not let them drift on the high seas in precarious conditions," he added in a statement made in Geneva.