Mauritania rejects boat carrying Pakistani migrants

NOUAKCHOTT, Feb 5 (Reuters) Mauritania's government said today it was denying landing rights to a boat carrying about 200 Pakistani migrants which broke down trying to reach Europe.

A Spanish naval vessel towed the boat to its current position in international waters just off Mauritania's northern fishing port of Nouadhibou, but authorities there have refused permission for the boat and its passengers to put ashore.

''Mauritania is refusing to authorise the boat to dock,'' the foreign ministry said in a statement.

''Mauritania has nothing to do with this boat breaking down, nor with taking charge of those on board,'' said the statement, adding there were around 200 Pakistani nationals on board.

The boat was thought to have set out from Guinea, hundreds of miles to the south, on its way to Spain's Canary Islands, Ahmedou Ould Haye of Mauritania's Red Crescent said.

Haye said late yesterday the boat was lying 32 km offshore in international waters.

A representative of the Geneva-based International Organisation for Migration (IOM), which seeks to assist migrants worldwide, said foreign governments had a responsibility to help people in distress at sea.

''Our position is a humanitarian one,'' Armand Rousselot, the IOM's representative for West and Central Africa, said.

''You can't leave people in a situation of danger ... those who have the means to help should do so. A decision needs to be taken,'' he told Reuters in Dakar.

MIGRANT FLOOD Some 30,000 illegal migrants arrived by boat in the Canaries during 2006, mostly looking for jobs, but Spanish authorities reckon shipwrecks and hunger kill one in six along the way.

Most migrants are from Mauritania's southern neighbour Senegal or other countries in the region, but some Asian migrants have also used the route into Europe.

Carlos de Francisco, deputy military attache at Spain's embassy in Mauritania, said the stricken boat's motor had broken down, and that Mauritania had a duty to allow it to dock.

''According to the agreements that Spain has signed with Senegal and Mauritania, all boats in danger must be towed to the nearest port,'' he said.

Spain has stepped up its diplomatic and aid ties with West Africa in an attempt to stem the human tide, and has intensified naval patrols in African coastal waters.

Local media in Spain had quoted foreign ministry sources as saying yesterday they had been through the political aspects of the landing with Mauritania, but were waiting for some ''technical details'' to be sorted out.

Reuters SRS VP0115