Mauritania has appealed for international help to stem the flow of African migrants trying to leave the country for Europe. "We cannot control the land and sea borders, which are very wide - we can't withstand this growing pressure. We need help," said Sidi Mohamed Ould Boubacar, the Mauritanian prime minister, in an interview published in Spain's El Pais newspaper. Traffic on the established migration route between Mauritania and Spain's Canary Islands has grown in recent weeks, with scores of young Africans leaving the Mauritanian coast every night in rickety fishing boats, hoping to find work in Spain.