Spain's Sanchez visits West Africa aiming to stem migration surge

FRANCE 24 English

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00:00It is his first stop on a three-day tour of West Africa.

00:04And the second time this year that Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has made the trip to Mauritania.

00:10On top of the agenda, tackling human trafficking and illegal migration.

00:14He and Mauritania's President Mohamed Ould Razouani said that they would expand legal migration accords between their two nations.

00:22Also cracking down on people smuggling by boosting cooperation between their security forces.

00:27For Sanchez, regular migration pathways are not the problem. Illegal ones are.

00:33We must promote ways to manage migration in a humane, safe and orderly manner for the benefit of our respective societies.

00:46Consequently, we must combat the mafias that traffic in human beings, that gamble with the lives of human beings,

00:53because the first victims of irregular migration are the immigrants themselves.

01:01Sanchez's visit to Mauritania comes amidst a surge of illegal migrants from across Africa to the Canary Islands.

01:08Since January, some 22,000 people have arrived on these Spanish Isles.

01:13That's double the number of people over the same period last year.

01:17The influx is thought to be due in part to increased unrest and violence across the Sahel region.

01:23But also due to an accord between Italy and Tunisia to curb deadly smuggling routes across the Mediterranean.

01:30But the route from West African nations to the Canary Islands are also deadly and dangerous.

01:35Thousands have lost their lives in makeshift dinghies.

01:38And the number of overcrowded boats are only expected to increase

01:42as the autumn brings calmer currents and conditions off the coast.

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