Mauritania has tentatively agreed to allow safe passage to some 400 illegal migrants, half of whom are believed to be Pakistani, stranded on a boat off its coast, provided Spain meets certain conditions, government officials said on Friday. A Mauritania Foreign Ministry spokesman, Babah Sidi Abdallah, said that there were | “For humanitarian reasons, Mauritania has accepted that these people pass through Mauritania, but they will not be allowed to stay here,” he added. |
“certain conditions that Spain must agree to before we can allow these migrants to transit through Mauritania en route to their country of origin,” while refusing to outline the conditions. “For humanitarian reasons, Mauritania has accepted that these people pass through Mauritania, but they will not be allowed to stay here,” he added.
The boat was headed to SpainÂ’s Canary Islands where the African and Asian migrants hoped to slip into Europe, but was intercepted by Spanish officials after the vessel ran into mechanical trouble a week ago. It has been floating in international waters just off the coast of Mauritania for seven days, as Spanish and Mauritanian officials struggled to agree on the fate of its human cargo, with Mauritania arguing that since the migrants did not leave from that country, it could not take them in. |