30 Senegalese people have been arrested by the Mauritanian Gendarmerie in Mauritania, in Northwest Africa, who were planning to come to the Canary Islands.

The arrests, including “a large number” of women with their babies, were made on Monday, December 7, after the officers intercepted the Senegalese migrants who had entered the country illegally and were planning to travel to Spain.

According to Mauritanian security sources, as reported by Efe on Tuesday, December 7, the group was trying to reach the town of Rosso south of Nouakchott after having crossed the border into Mauritania illegally.

The source added, quoting one of the detainees that the group, who will now undergo a medical examination and be interrogated by the police before being deported, intended to move to Nouakchott with the ultimate aim of migrating to the Canary Islands.

 Arrests of illegal immigrants in Mauritania are often made when they try to leave the country for Spain by sea from Nouakchott or Nouadhibou in the far north of the country.