Migrants in hiding as Mauritania pushbacks drastically cut Europe arrivals

In her dimly lit apartment in a quiet suburb of Nouakchott, Francina folded up laundry scattered on a low bed in the corner. Insects gathered on the floor.
A native of the Republic of Congo, the 23-year-old has been on the road – alone – for as long as she can remember. She was first displaced after her parents were killed in a bloody conflict in Congo, after which she fled to Mali, where a fellow Congolese housed her. When the woman who welcomed her died, however, she was forced onto the streets.

When Francina arrived in neighbouring Mauritania in 2023, things were steady at first.

She felt welcomed by friendly locals and landed a hostess job in the capital. But early last year, police officials in white buses began approaching people who “looked like” migrants on the streets, grabbing and detaining them to be deported, she said.

“Now, we can’t go out,” she told Al Jazeera. “Sometimes we ask people who have papers to go and buy bread for us.

“[The police] already caught me twice, and they asked me to pay 25,000 Mauritanian ouguiya [$623] each time. That’s too costly for me.”