Three hundred and seventy two would-be migrants to Europe who had drifted for weeks off the coast of North Africa in a disabled cargo ship, disembarked at the Mauritanian port of Nouadhibou on Monday, yet humanitarian workers said they did not know what will happen to them next.
“The obstacle now is that many are refusing to reveal their identities,” Ahmedou ould Haye, the regional delegate for the Red Crescent in Nouadhibou said. “Many speak Urdu and we think they come from Kashmir [a region which straddles Pakistan or India] but we don’t know which the side of the border.”
The ship had been unable to dock earlier while the governments of Spain and Mauritania negotiated over who should take responsibility for the passengers. Didier Laye, head of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) in Mauritania, said refugee law does not apply in this situation, and that none of the passengers had requested asylum.
“They don’t refuse to avail themselves of protection, it’s just they don’t want to return [to their home countries],” Laye said.
According to UNHCR, 37 of 372 passengers from countries in sub-Saharan Africa, have been flown to the Cape Verde islands, while 35 from Afghanistan, Myanmar and Sri Lanka were sent to the Spanish Canary Islands for processing by the Spanish police.
“The rest are now sleeping in a warehouse at the port guarded by Spanish police,” the Red Crescent’s Haye said. “Spain has refused to allow them to go to the Canary Islands for processing.”
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