Diplomatic fallout over 400 mostly Asian migrants who had drifted for weeks in a ship off the coast of Mauritania has left governments less likely to assist the next group of migrants that gets into difficulties and raises the prospect of having a humanitarian emergency in which no one will be willing to help.

“The fundamental problem of what will happen in the future to migrant ships close to Mauritanian waters that are in distress and need assistance has not been solved,” the United Nations’ most senior representative in Mauritania Cécile Molinier told IRIN.

The number of illegal migrants heading to Spain’s Canary Islands from West Africa has mushroomed in recent years, reaching an estimated 30,000 in 2006. Most are Africans who come up the Atlantic coast on large fishing canoes but an increasing number are Asians who fly to West Africa and then board ships that sail north.

One such ship, a rusty shrimp trawler called Marine One, left the port in Guinea Conakry in December but broke down along the way. A Spanish rescue boat found the ship in January but it sat off the coast of Mauritania for weeks with Spain and Mauritania at loggerheads over who should take responsibility.

On 12 February Mauritania allowed Spain to tow the ship to the port of Nouadhibou, on condition that Spain flew the migrants out within four hours. But most of the migrants, who are believed to be Indian or Pakistani, did not present identity documents and refused to state their country of origin so there was nowhere for Spain to fly them to.

For the last month they have been held in a warehouse in the port as various governments try to work out what to do with them. Pakistan government officials are expected to arrive next week while Indian officials from the nearest embassy in Senegal have already visited.

In recent days around 200 acknowledged their Indian nationality and as of Thursday about a third had left Mauritania on commercial flights.

Regret involvement

But while this crisis appears almost over, both Spain and Mauritania say they regret having ever gotten involved and that they will avoid getting involved in the future.

“I think it was a mistake for our maritime authorities to have come to their rescue,” said a Spanish diplomat who did not want to be named. “Next time we will make sure that Spain is not compromised.”

International conventions of the International Maritime Organisation legally oblige countries to provide ship wreck survivors with “a place of safety [and to meet their] basic human needs (such as food, shelter and medical needs)” but Mauritania, one of the poorest countries in the world, has not signed all the agreements and says it is already overwhelmed with thousands of West Africa migrants who are trying to pass through its territory to get to Europe

“These [Asian] migrants are not our problem and this is the last time we will take them in,” a senior Mauritanian official told IRIN. “Next time we will just call the owner of the ship and the government of the country under which it is flying to tell them to fix the boat while it is on the high seas,” he said.

Such a solution would not have worked in the case of the Marine One as the ship was not flying under any flag and the owner has not yet been identified. Officials are not sure if the crew jumped ship or melted in with the migrants.

Denying responsibility

In February IRIN tried to ascertain the humanitarian situation at the warehouse after hearing from the head of the Spanish Red Cross in Mauritania that conditions for the migrants there were “not good.”

However Mauritanian authorities said only Spain could authorise IRIN’s access as Spain is wholly responsible for them. Spain, on the other hand, said it is operating under the authority of the Mauritanian government thus it could not authorise IRIN’s access either.

Why both governments are so averse to taking responsibility has a peculiar political logic.

Spain has an effective rescue service ready to assist all vessels in distress in the area but the government is concerned about what would happen if migrants were brought to its shores. Under Spanish law, authorities must free anyone held in its territory if the person’s identity cannot be established within 40 days.

Tens of thousands of migrants illegally enter Spain this way each year but aiding disabled migrant ships on the high seas could potentially open up more loopholes, a Spanish diplomat said.

He said the migrants on Marine One initially hid their identities hoping that the 40 day-rule would apply in Mauritania as Spanish authorities appeared to be in charge. “But under no circumstances will we allow them to get into Spain,” he said. “They are manipulating humanitarian imperatives to their advantage… it is important that we send them a message of strength.”

Such a message did not appear to have been on the minds of the Spanish rescue crew when it received Marine One’s distress call in January, which did its job of tracking down the ship and towing it to shore.

Looking for solutions

Several Mauritanian government officials said they believed that the Spanish rescue boat found the Marine One in waters off the Canary Islands under Spain’s jurisdiction and towed it down to Mauritanian waters.

Mauritania did sign an agreement with Spain in 2003 which obliges it to take back all illegal migrants arriving in Spain from Mauritania’s shores no matter which country they come from.

That agreement was signed before the wave of migration had begun. In 2006 Spain agreed to provide Mauritania with boats for coastal surveillance to as well as other technical assistance to stop and repatriate migrants.

However the Marine One left from Guinea not Mauritania and as far as Mauritanian officials are concerned Asian migrants were never part of the deal. “We never agreed to become Europe’s gendarmes,” one official said.

The Marine One is reportedly the fourth ship this year attempting to bring Asian migrants to Europe and some say there are signs that they are victims of organised crime.

“These people may not be smuggled but trafficked,” said one official, suggesting that they could be under an obligation to work to pay back the cost of getting them to Europe once they are there.

Bodies such as the International Organisation for Migration and the UN Refugee Agency can assist people to return to their countries but only when they are willing and able to do so voluntarily.

“We need to understand the dynamics of migrant communities in order to create both push and pull factors,” said an international official arguing for the different parties to brainstorm solutions to the problem before there is a humanitarian catastrophe.

“Madrid is working on a solution,” said the Spanish diplomat, “but so far no solution has been found.”

For the UN’s representative Molinier, more countries than just Spain and Mauritania need to get involved. “This is an issue that involves all of Europe and much of Africa and we need to discuss what we can all do,” she said.