HRW accuses Mauritania of years of migrant abuse

MAURITANIAN security forces have committed “serious human rights violations” against migrants and asylum seekers ranging from torture to rape over the past five years, Human Rights Watch said yesterday in a report.

- 

The country has become a key staging post for undocumented migrants from across the African continent who take a dangerous sea route from west Africa to Europe, with many heading for Spain.

The rights group said that the abuses were “exacerbated” by the EU and Spain which had continued to outsource their immigration management to Mauritania, including by supporting its border and migration control authorities.