Sanchez will begin a tour of Mauritania, Gambia and Senegal this week

The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, begins this week a tour of Africa from August 27 to 29, including the countries of Mauritania, Gambia and Senegal in key weeks to address the migrant reception crisis.

In this way, Sánchez, who recovers his official agenda after weeks of vacation (on Friday he held a meeting with the president of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo), will return to Mauritania seven months after visiting Nouakchott with the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, where they addressed strengthening cooperation with this African country with the aim of reducing migratory flows in boats and in Cayucos.

In this sense, the President of the Government announced during his February visit that Spain will mobilize more than 300 million euros for Mauritania in the coming years. Specifically, Sánchez pointed out that, of the total figure, 200 million euros correspond to the promotion of investments by Spanish companies in Mauritania; 60 million will go to development projects and another 50 million will go to financial cooperation for the African country.

“We are going to strengthen our existing cooperation projects through border controls and we are going to consider different formulas to facilitate regular migration,” Sanchez said in a joint appearance with von der Leyen and Mauritania’s President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani. The chief executive also announced the inauguration of an extension of the Cervantes Institute in the capital, Nouakchott, during the official visit.

Visiting Alberes

In June, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Alberes, already made another institutional visit to Gambia and Senegal, where he confirmed that Spain will allocate 180 million euros to development cooperation over the next four years. Mainly in youth and employment.

Among the issues discussed with his Senegalese counterpart, Yacine Fall, as well as with the country’s president, Bassirou Diomie Faye (this was the first contact of the Spanish executive with the new government after his election last March), the minister advocated exploring how to promote circular migration, that is, hiring in the place of origin and subsequent return to Senegal. In this sense, he spoke about the possibility of involving the driver sector, given the demand for truck drivers that exists in Spain.

On the other hand, the head of Spanish diplomacy also met with the President of the Gambia, Adama Barrow, in Banjul, and they set the objective of promoting circular migration with the hiring of Gambians in origin, in addition to continuing to work closely together to fight against illegal immigration and people smuggling mafias.

The second vice president, Yolanda Diaz, also traveled to Senegal and signed a Memorandum of Understanding to enhance cooperation on labor inspection with her Senegalese counterpart Yancouba Diamé. As the ministry explained in a statement, Diaz’s department has also strengthened work with other West African countries such as Cape Verde, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau or Togo and soon Mauritania.