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01-05-2026
NOUAKCHOTT, MAURITANIA: 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 neighboring 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.”
She is one of four people in Nouakchott who told Al Jazeera they fear being deported or worry about having to pay bribes amid a mass deportation campaign by the government. They have resorted to hiding in the shadows in a country they once felt welcome in, sneaking out at dusk and creeping back in the dark.
Rights groups, including a United Nations expert panel, have raised concerns about the legality of arrests and forced deportations under international refugee law. Some have accused authorities of complicating the process of obtaining legal papers intentionally by delaying procedures to limit the number of those who can stay.
Al Jazeera has contacted police and government officials in Mauritania for a response.
Authorities have in the past said they are targeting only undocumented people.
Typically, migrants are rounded up and deported without notice, with some unable to take their valuables with them. Mauritanian media have reported that hundreds of deportations of undocumented migrants took place in 2025, as well as of people whose permits had expired.
Human Rights Watch, citing government figures, said 28,000 people were “expelled” in the first six months of 2025. Al Jazeera was unable to verify that figure independently.
‘We need them here’
Aicha, a Sierra Leonean, told Al Jazeera that officers grabbed her at a market in February. She was then driven by police over to the border with Senegal, despite having a legal stay permit to work in Mauritania, she said.
The officers seized her phone and asked her to pay a bribe, but she refused, she said, hoping her documents would protect her. She has since found her way back to Mauritania, but goes out only when she needs to.
Others arrested by the police, including in their own homes, have reportedly been beaten in detention and said their valuables were stolen.
Some locals are angry at the crackdown. Scores of young migrants used to line the capital’s wide streets offering cheap services as plumbers or electricians, or selling everyday items but most have now disappeared.
“We need them here,” one business owner who employs documented and irregular migrants said.
Migrant departures from Mauritania plummet
Mauritania, a vast, sparsely populated desert country of just 4.5 million, sprawls on the edge of Northwest Africa. (Al Jazeera)
