The president of the Canary Islands travels to Mauritania to address the problem of migration

Fernando Clavijo travels to Mauritania for a two-day official visit on Thursday 20th and Friday 21st January to address the issue of illegal migration.

50% of the boats carrying illegal migrants heading for the Canary Islands leave from Mauritania, so the purpose of the trip is very important. 

The spokesman for the Canarian Government, Alfonso Cabello, said that in January alone up to 4,752 migrants arrived in the Canary Islands illegally and so far in February the figure has already reached 2,000. 

Alfonso Cabello said that the autonomous community is working on reviewing the good neighbourly relations data with Mauritania, adding that this mission will ‘probably’ be ‘the most important ever’ with the African country and that it will take place ten years after the last one, under the presidency of Paulino Rivero. 

The president of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, will hold high-level meetings with representatives of the Mauritanian government to discuss new forms of collaboration to prevent these migratory routes from the African country to the Canary Islands, on the so-called Atlantic Route. The main objective is to avoid the cruel loss of human life.

The Atlantic Route, with almost 9,800 deaths, was the deadliest in the world in 2024, with a particularly high incidence on the Mauritanian route. Mauritania is precisely the main point of departure for irregular migrants to the Canary Islands. Behind this route, the Algerian route in the Mediterranean is the second most deadly, followed by the Strait of Gibraltar route. 

Fernando Clavijo will be accompanied by a public-private delegation of around 70 people, the largest Canarian delegation to have travelled to the African country to date.

In this way, the president of the Canary Islands is travelling to Mauritania to strengthen institutional ties with an African country that is key in the migration crisis. The visit includes top-level meetings with representatives of the Mauritanian government, as well as a full agenda of institutional and business meetings with the aim of presenting joint projects financed by the EU and strengthening historical commercial relations, as the Government of the Canary Islands has clarified.

In the public sphere, the Canary Islands Government delegation includes the Deputy Minister of the Office of the President, Octavio Caraballo, the Director General of Relations with Africa, Luis Padilla, the CEO of the ITC, Guayarmina Peña, and the CEO of Proexca, Pablo Martín Carbajal. 

Also travelling to Mauritania are senior officials from the archipelago's two port authorities, the vice-chancellor of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, members of the University of La Laguna and representatives of Canarian companies that have links with the Mauritanian country.

During their official visit, President Clavijo and the Canarian delegation will present the ‘Tierra Firme’ project, which aims to provide vocational training and job opportunities for young people from Senegal, Mauritania and Gambia. The aim is to promote job opportunities in Africa and to collaborate with sustainable development on the continent, with the main objective of preventing young people from losing their lives on the dangerous Atlantic migration route.