Uganda – US

According to a recent report by the UN refugee agency UNHCR, 275,000 refugees and asylum seekers are currently in Mauritania.They are chiefly concentrated in the southeast on the border with Mali, including 112,000 registered in the crowded Mbera refugee camp alone, UNHCR says.Most have fled insecurity and hunger in Mali, said Defence Minister Hanena Ould Sidi.At talks with his Spanish counterpart Margarita Robles in Nouakchott, the minister warned that the "deteriorating security situation in the region is leading to an intensification of the flow of irregular migrants crossing Mauritania into Spain".Mauritania is on a maritime route used by tens of thousands of Africans trying to reach Europe via the Atlantic.To October 15th, 32,878 illegal migrants had arrived in the Canary Islands by sea, compared to 23,537 during the same period in 2023, according to the Spanish Interior Ministry.