Latest news with #AMDH
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
‘Xenophobic': Neighbours outraged over Mauritania's mass migrant pushback
Their situation seemed desperate; their demeanour, portrayed in several videos published by news outlets, was sour. On a recent weekday in March, men, women, and even children – all with their belongings heaped on their heads or strapped to their bodies – disembarked from the ferry they say they were forcibly hauled onto from the vast northwest African nation of Mauritania to the Senegalese town of Rosso, on the banks of the Senegal River. Their offence? Being migrants from the region, they told reporters, regardless of whether they had legal residency papers. 'We suffered there,' one woman told France's TV5 Monde, a baby perched on her hip. 'It was really bad.' The deportees are among hundreds of West Africans who have been rounded up by Mauritanian security forces, detained, and sent over the border to Senegal and Mali in recent months, human rights groups say. According to one estimate from the Mauritanian Association for Human Rights (AMDH),1,200 people were pushed back in March alone, even though about 700 of them had residence permits. Those pushed back told reporters about being randomly approached for questioning before being arrested, detained for days in tight prison cells with insufficient food and water, and tortured. Many people remained in prison in Mauritania, they said. The largely desert country – which has signed expensive deals with the European Union to keep migrants from taking the risky boat journey across the Atlantic Ocean to Western shores – has called the pushbacks necessary to crack down on human smuggling networks. However, its statements have done little to calm rare anger from its neighbours, Mali and Senegal, whose citizens make up a huge number of those sent back. Mali's government, in a statement in March, expressed 'indignation' at the treatment of its nationals, adding that 'the conditions of arrest are in flagrant violation of human rights and the rights of migrants in particular.' In Senegal, a member of parliament called the pushbacks 'xenophobic' and urged the government to launch an investigation. 'We've seen these kinds of pushbacks in the past but it is at an intensity we've never seen before in terms of the number of people deported and the violence used,' Hassan Ould Moctar, a migration researcher at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London, told Al Jazeera. The blame, the researcher said, was largely to be put on the EU. On one hand, Mauritania was likely under pressure from Brussels, and on the other hand, it was also likely reacting to controversial rumours that migrants deported from Europe would be resettled in the country despite Nouakchott's denial of such an agreement. Mauritania, on the edge of the Atlantic, is one of the closest points from the continent to Spain's Canary Islands. That makes it a popular departure point for migrants who crowd the coastal capital, Nouakchott, and the commercial northern city of Nouadhibou. Most are trying to reach the Canaries, a Spanish enclave closer to the African continent than to Europe, from where they can seek asylum. Due to its role as a transit hub, the EU has befriended Nouakchott – as well as the major transit points of Morocco and Senegal – since the 2000s, pumping funds to enable security officials there to prevent irregular migrants from embarking on the crossing. However, the EU honed in on Mauritania with renewed vigour last year after the number of people travelling from the country shot up to unusual levels, making it the number one departure point. About 83 percent of the 7,270 people who arrived in the Canaries in January 2024 travelled from Mauritania, migrant advocacy group Caminando Fronteras (CF) noted in a report last year. That number represented a 1,184 percent increase compared with January 2023, when most people were leaving Senegal. Some 3,600 died on the Mauritania-Atlantic route between January and April 2024, CF noted. Analysts, and the EU, link the surge to upheavals wracking the Sahel, from Mali to Niger, including coups and attacks by several armed groups looking to build caliphates. In Mali, attacks on local communities by armed groups and government forces suspicious of locals have forced hundreds over the border into Mauritania in recent weeks. Ibrahim Drame of the Senegalese Red Cross in the border town of Rosso told Al Jazeera the migrant raids began in January after a new immigration law went into force, requiring a residence permit for any foreigner living on Mauritanian soil. However, he said most people have not had an opportunity to apply for those permits. Before this, nationals of countries like Senegal and Mali enjoyed free movement under bilateral agreements. 'Raids have been organised day and night, in large markets, around bus stations, and on the main streets,' Drame noted, adding that those affected are receiving dwindling shelter and food support from the Red Cross, and included migrants from Togo, Nigeria, Niger, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea Conakry, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ghana and Benin. 'Hundreds of them were even hunted down in their homes or workplaces, without receiving the slightest explanation … mainly women, children, people with chronic illnesses in a situation of extreme vulnerability and stripped of all their belongings, even their mobile phones,' Drame said. Last February, European Commission head, Ursula von der Leyen, visited President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani in Nouakchott to sign a 210 million euro ($235m) 'migrant partnership agreement'. The EU said the agreement was meant to intensify 'border security cooperation' with Frontex, the EU border agency, and dismantle smuggler networks. The bloc has promised an additional 4 million euros ($4.49m) this year to provide food, medical, and psychosocial support to migrants. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez was also in Mauritania in August to sign a separate border security agreement. Black Mauritanians in the country, meanwhile, say the pushback campaign has awakened feelings of exclusion and forced displacement carried by their communities. Some fear the deportations may be directed at them. Activist Abdoulaye Sow, founder of the US-based Mauritanian Network for Human Rights in the US (MNHRUS), told Al Jazeera that to understand why Black people in the country feel threatened, there's a need to understand the country's painful past. Located at a confluence where the Arab world meets Sub-Saharan Africa, Mauritania has historically been racially segregated, with the Arab-Berber political elite dominating over the Black population, some of whom were previously, or are still, enslaved. It was only in 1981 that Mauritania passed a law abolishing slavery, but the practice still exists, according to rights groups. Dark-skinned Black Mauritanians are composed of Haratines, an Arabic-speaking group descended from formerly enslaved peoples. There are also non-Arabic speaking groups like the Fulani and Wolof, who are predominantly from the Senegal border area in the country's south. Black Mauritanians, Sow said, were once similarly deported en masse in trucks from the country to Senegal. It dates back to April 1989, when simmering tensions between Mauritanian herders and Senegalese farmers in border communities erupted and led to the 1989-1991 Border War between the two countries. Both sides deployed their militaries in heavy gunfire battles. In Senegal, mobs attacked Mauritanian traders, and in Mauritania, security forces cracked down on Senegalese nationals. Because a Black liberation movement was also growing at the time, and the Mauritanian military government was fearful of a coup, it cracked down on Black Mauritanians, too. By 1991, there were refugees on either side in the thousands. However, after peace came about, the Mauritanian government expelled thousands of Black Mauritanians under the guise of repatriating Senegalese refugees. Some 60,000 people were forced into Senegal. Many lost important citizenship and property documents in the process. 'I was a victim too,' Sow said. 'It wasn't safe for Blacks who don't speak Arabic. I witnessed armed people going house to house and asking people if they were Mauritanian, beating them, even killing them.' Sow said it is why the deportation of sub-Saharan migrants is scaring the community. Although he has written open letters to the government warning of how Black people could be affected, he said there has been no response. 'When they started these recent deportations again, I knew where they were going, and we've already heard of a Black Mauritanian deported to Mali. We've been sounding the alarm for so long, but the government is not responsive.' The Mauritanian government directed Al Jazeera to an earlier statement it released regarding the deportations, but did not address allegations of possible forced expulsions of Black Mauritanians. In the statement, the government said it welcomed legal migrants from neighbouring countries, and that it was targeting irregular migrants and smuggling networks. 'Mauritania has made significant efforts to enable West African nationals to regularise their residence status by obtaining resident cards following simplified procedures,' the statement read. Although Mauritania eventually agreed to take back its nationals between 2007 and 2012, many Afro-Mauritanians still do not have documents proving their citizenship as successive administrations implement fluctuating documentation and census laws. Tens of thousands are presently stateless, Sow said. At least 16,000 refugees chose to stay back in Senegal to avoid persecution in Mauritania. Sow said the fear of another forced deportation comes on top of other issues, including national laws that require students in all schools to learn in Arabic, irrespective of their culture. Arabic is Mauritania's lingua franca, but Afro-Mauritanians who speak languages like Wolof or Pula are against what they call 'forced Arabisation'. Sow says it is 'cultural genocide'. Despite new residence permit laws in place, Sow added, migrants, as well as the Black Mauritanian population, should be protected. 'Whether they are migrants or not, they have their rights as people, as humans,' he said.
Al Jazeera
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
‘Xenophobic': Neighbours outraged over Mauritania's mass migrant pushback
Their situation seemed desperate; their demeanour, portrayed in several videos published by news outlets, was sour. On a recent weekday in March, men, women, and even children – all with their belongings heaped on their heads or strapped to their bodies – disembarked from the ferry they say they were forcibly hauled onto from the vast northwest African nation of Mauritania to the Senegalese town of Rosso, on the banks of the Senegal River. Their offence? Being migrants from the region, they told reporters, regardless of whether they had legal residency papers. 'We suffered there,' one woman told France's TV5 Monde, a baby perched on her hip. 'It was really bad.' The deportees are among hundreds of West Africans who have been rounded up by Mauritanian security forces, detained, and sent over the border to Senegal and Mali in recent months, human rights groups say. According to one estimate from the Mauritanian Association for Human Rights (AMDH),1,200 people were pushed back in March alone, even though about 700 of them had residence permits. Those pushed back told reporters about being randomly approached for questioning before being arrested, detained for days in tight prison cells with insufficient food and water, and tortured. Many people remained in prison in Mauritania, they said. The largely desert country – which has signed expensive deals with the European Union to keep migrants from taking the risky boat journey across the Atlantic Ocean to Western shores – has called the pushbacks necessary to crack down on human smuggling networks. However, its statements have done little to calm rare anger from its neighbours, Mali and Senegal, whose citizens make up a huge number of those sent back. Mali's government, in a statement in March, expressed 'indignation' at the treatment of its nationals, adding that 'the conditions of arrest are in flagrant violation of human rights and the rights of migrants in particular.' In Senegal, a member of parliament called the pushbacks 'xenophobic' and urged the government to launch an investigation. 'We've seen these kinds of pushbacks in the past but it is at an intensity we've never seen before in terms of the number of people deported and the violence used,' Hassan Ould Moctar, a migration researcher at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London, told Al Jazeera. The blame, the researcher said, was largely to be put on the EU. On one hand, Mauritania was likely under pressure from Brussels, and on the other hand, it was also likely reacting to controversial rumours that migrants deported from Europe would be resettled in the country despite Nouakchott's denial of such an agreement. Mauritania, on the edge of the Atlantic, is one of the closest points from the continent to Spain's Canary Islands. That makes it a popular departure point for migrants who crowd the coastal capital, Nouakchott, and the commercial northern city of Nouadhibou. Most are trying to reach the Canaries, a Spanish enclave closer to the African continent than to Europe, from where they can seek asylum. Due to its role as a transit hub, the EU has befriended Nouakchott – as well as the major transit points of Morocco and Senegal – since the 2000s, pumping funds to enable security officials there to prevent irregular migrants from embarking on the crossing. However, the EU honed in on Mauritania with renewed vigour last year after the number of people travelling from the country shot up to unusual levels, making it the number one departure point. About 83 percent of the 7,270 people who arrived in the Canaries in January 2024 travelled from Mauritania, migrant advocacy group Caminando Fronteras (CF) noted in a report last year. That number represented a 1,184 percent increase compared with January 2023, when most people were leaving Senegal. Some 3,600 died on the Mauritania-Atlantic route between January and April 2024, CF noted. Analysts, and the EU, link the surge to upheavals wracking the Sahel, from Mali to Niger, including coups and attacks by several armed groups looking to build caliphates. In Mali, attacks on local communities by armed groups and government forces suspicious of locals have forced hundreds over the border into Mauritania in recent weeks. Ibrahim Drame of the Senegalese Red Cross in the border town of Rosso told Al Jazeera the migrant raids began in January after a new immigration law went into force, requiring a residence permit for any foreigner living on Mauritanian soil. However, he said most people have not had an opportunity to apply for those permits. Before this, nationals of countries like Senegal and Mali enjoyed free movement under bilateral agreements. 'Raids have been organised day and night, in large markets, around bus stations, and on the main streets,' Drame noted, adding that those affected are receiving dwindling shelter and food support from the Red Cross, and included migrants from Togo, Nigeria, Niger, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea Conakry, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ghana and Benin. 'Hundreds of them were even hunted down in their homes or workplaces, without receiving the slightest explanation … mainly women, children, people with chronic illnesses in a situation of extreme vulnerability and stripped of all their belongings, even their mobile phones,' Drame said. Last February, European Commission head, Ursula von der Leyen, visited President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani in Nouakchott to sign a 210 million euro ($235m) 'migrant partnership agreement'. The EU said the agreement was meant to intensify 'border security cooperation' with Frontex, the EU border agency, and dismantle smuggler networks. The bloc has promised an additional 4 million euros ($4.49m) this year to provide food, medical, and psychosocial support to migrants. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez was also in Mauritania in August to sign a separate border security agreement. Black Mauritanians in the country, meanwhile, say the pushback campaign has awakened feelings of exclusion and forced displacement carried by their communities. Some fear the deportations may be directed at them. Activist Abdoulaye Sow, founder of the US-based Mauritanian Network for Human Rights in the US (MNHRUS), told Al Jazeera that to understand why Black people in the country feel threatened, there's a need to understand the country's painful past. Located at a confluence where the Arab world meets Sub-Saharan Africa, Mauritania has historically been racially segregated, with the Arab-Berber political elite dominating over the Black population, some of whom were previously, or are still, enslaved. It was only in 1981 that Mauritania passed a law abolishing slavery, but the practice still exists, according to rights groups. Dark-skinned Black Mauritanians are composed of Haratines, an Arabic-speaking group descended from formerly enslaved peoples. There are also non-Arabic speaking groups like the Fulani and Wolof, who are predominantly from the Senegal border area in the country's south. Black Mauritanians, Sow said, were once similarly deported en masse in trucks from the country to Senegal. It dates back to April 1989, when simmering tensions between Mauritanian herders and Senegalese farmers in border communities erupted and led to the 1989-1991 Border War between the two countries. Both sides deployed their militaries in heavy gunfire battles. In Senegal, mobs attacked Mauritanian traders, and in Mauritania, security forces cracked down on Senegalese nationals. Because a Black liberation movement was also growing at the time, and the Mauritanian military government was fearful of a coup, it cracked down on Black Mauritanians, too. By 1991, there were refugees on either side in the thousands. However, after peace came about, the Mauritanian government expelled thousands of Black Mauritanians under the guise of repatriating Senegalese refugees. Some 60,000 people were forced into Senegal. Many lost important citizenship and property documents in the process. 'I was a victim too,' Sow said. 'It wasn't safe for Blacks who don't speak Arabic. I witnessed armed people going house to house and asking people if they were Mauritanian, beating them, even killing them.' Sow said it is why the deportation of sub-Saharan migrants is scaring the community. Although he has written open letters to the government warning of how Black people could be affected, he said there has been no response. 'When they started these recent deportations again, I knew where they were going, and we've already heard of a Black Mauritanian deported to Mali. We've been sounding the alarm for so long, but the government is not responsive.' The Mauritanian government directed Al Jazeera to an earlier statement it released regarding the deportations, but did not address allegations of possible forced expulsions of Black Mauritanians. In the statement, the government said it welcomed legal migrants from neighbouring countries, and that it was targeting irregular migrants and smuggling networks. 'Mauritania has made significant efforts to enable West African nationals to regularise their residence status by obtaining resident cards following simplified procedures,' the statement read. Although Mauritania eventually agreed to take back its nationals between 2007 and 2012, many Afro-Mauritanians still do not have documents proving their citizenship as successive administrations implement fluctuating documentation and census laws. Tens of thousands are presently stateless, Sow said. At least 16,000 refugees chose to stay back in Senegal to avoid persecution in Mauritania. Sow said the fear of another forced deportation comes on top of other issues, including national laws that require students in all schools to learn in Arabic, irrespective of their culture. Arabic is Mauritania's lingua franca, but Afro-Mauritanians who speak languages like Wolof or Pula are against what they call 'forced Arabisation'. Sow says it is 'cultural genocide'. Despite new residence permit laws in place, Sow added, migrants, as well as the Black Mauritanian population, should be protected. 'Whether they are migrants or not, they have their rights as people, as humans,' he said.
Ya Biladi
20-02-2025
- Ya Biladi
Gang rape near Marrakech : Light sentences spark plans for appeal
The Criminal Chamber of First Instance at the Marrakech Court of Appeal sentenced three men to prison terms ranging from six to ten years on Wednesday evening after they were found guilty of abducting a minor with a mental disability and raping her. Following the childbirth of the 13-year-old victim, a DNA test identified one of the accused, a 74-year-old man, as the biological father. Based on Articles 471, 475-2, and 485 of the Penal Code, he was sentenced to eight years in prison for these offenses, in addition to an attempted bribery charge involving a gendarme. The second accused received a ten-year sentence under Articles 471, 475-2, 485, and 488 for rape resulting in the victim's loss of virginity. The third defendant was sentenced to six years based on Articles 471, 475-2, and 485. The court also ordered the three men to pay the victim 100,000 dirhams in damages. Additionally, a symbolic one-dirham compensation was awarded to the Marrakech-Menara branch of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH), which joined the case as a civil party, supporting the victim's father with legal representation from 18 lawyers. Following the verdict, the NGO confirmed to Yabiladi that the civil party intends to appeal, arguing that the sentences handed down are too lenient compared to the minimum penalties prescribed by the applicable Penal Code articles. Another legal procedure will be initiated to establish the paternity of the child, given that DNA test results confirmed a 99.9999% match with the accused. Lenient sentences for crimes punishable by up to 20 years Omar Arbib, president of AMDH's local branch, criticized the verdict, calling it both «lenient » toward the perpetrators—despite the repeated nature of the assault—and «unjust » toward the victim. «This ruling fails to meet the standards of justice and fairness, which are essential for true reparation. The sentences are far from exemplary and fail to serve as a deterrent, despite the severity of the crimes. They do not even align with the penal code, which prescribes sentences of 20 years or more in cases involving aggravating circumstances». Omar Arbib After exposing the case and the victim's childbirth, the AMDH branch in El Attaouia raised concerns over the growing normalization of «rape, sexual exploitation of children, pedophilia, and child abuse » in Morocco. While commending the legal team representing the civil party, Saïd Fadili, president of the AMDH branch, condemned the verdict as «disproportionately light, lacking any real deterrent effect, and failing to reflect the severity of the crime ». He emphasized that the association had pushed for the maximum penalties, which could have reached 30 years in prison under the penal code. The association reiterated its call for «zero tolerance » for crimes involving rape, pedophilia, and the sexual exploitation of children, stressing the need for tougher sentences—especially given the similarities between this case and the Tiflet gang rape trial, where sentences were increased on appeal. Calls for harsher sentences and stronger child protection laws For the NGOs supporting the civil party, this trial is an opportunity to advocate for stronger enforcement of the principle of the best interests of the child—both for the 13-year-old victim and her newborn. This aligns with Articles 6, 7, and 8 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Morocco has ratified. These provisions guarantee a child's right to protection, identity, and the ability to know their parents. « We will also advocate for these provisions to be included in the ongoing reform of the Family Code, ensuring that paternity recognition is explicitly mandated in law, despite opposition from groups resisting universal human rights », stated Omar Arbib. The NGO Don't Touch My Child « Matkich Weldi » described the first-instance ruling as « a step forward» but still «insufficient given the gravity of the case». Najat Anwar, the organization's president and legal representative in the case, reiterated calls for harsher penalties for sexual crimes against children. She also praised the role of human rights organizations, particularly AMDH, in ensuring the case received public attention. Additionally, the NGO renewed its appeal for «enhanced child protection mechanisms, particularly for those in vulnerable situations», alongside a «strong and exemplary judicial response against perpetrators to eliminate all forms of impunity».
