Echoes Migrants from Nouadhibou—Mauritania
For many years, a group of migrants of Nigerian, Gha-naian, Ivorian and Senegalese nationality have been living in Nouadhibou. After several unsuccessful attempts to enter Morocco and the Canary Islands illegally, they finally decided to give up illegal immi-gration from Africa to Europe and to engage in salting and drying fish on the coast adjacent to the artisanal port of Nouadhibou as a way to make a living. The fish they dry are mostly sold locally in Nouadhibou, Nouakchott and sent to Senegal, Ghana, Niger and Nigeria.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, several NGOs have had to close their offices and interrupt field projects. The overcrowding of the camps, illegal immigration from Africa to Europe, armed conflicts in the sub-region, the closure of land borders and the curfew from 9pm to 6am, made the local authorities aware of the large fish market initiated by young migrants in Nouadhibou, so they decided to chase them away and close the site. The resulting vacuum has increa-sed the exposure, vulnerability and unemployment of these young migrants. This dispersal has led to a lot of frustration for many of them, who only had this to live on and meet their needs: food, health and pay-ment of their housing.
These young migrants, unable to bear this crisis, mo-bilised themselves to come and seek help and emer-gency support from the Caritas in Nouadhibou (food, sanitation, hygiene, housing, etc.).
