EU leaders unveil €210m Mauritania deal in bid to curb people-smuggling

The port at Tenerife last week. More than 7,000 people travelled from west Africa to the Canary Islands last month, up from 566 in January 2023. Photograph: Mercedes Menendez/Pacific Press/Rex Shutterstock

The head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, have unveiled plans for a €210m partnership with Mauritania in an attempt to curb people-smuggling to the Canary islands and launch new energy and infrastructure projects benefiting both sides.

Figures soon to be published by Frontex, the EU’s border agency, are expected to show that the number of people risking their lives by making the perilous journey from west African shores to the Spanish islands has risen dramatically in the past year.