Their situation seems to be desperate. Their behavior is portrayed in several videos published by the news media, very sour.

On the most recent workday in March, men, women, and even children - all the items were piled up on the head or tied to the body - disembarked from the ferry, they said they were forcibly getting on and off from the vast northwestern African country of Mauritania (the town of Senegales) to the town of Senegales on the Senegalese River.

Their attack? They told reporters that they were immigrants from the area whether they had legal residence documents or not.

"We suffered there," a woman told France's TV5 Monde, a baby perched on her hips. “It’s really bad.”

The deported persons were among hundreds of West Africans rounded up by Mauritanian security forces and were detained in recent months and sent to the border to Senegal and Mali, human rights groups said.

According to an estimate by the Mauritanian Society for Human Rights (AMDH), 1,200 people were pushed back in March alone, although about 700 of them were granted residence permits.

Those who were postponed told reporters that they were randomly questioned before being arrested, detained for several days, were inadequate food and water in a confined prison cell and were tortured. They said many remained in Mauritanian prisons.

The majority of the desert country has reached expensive deals with the EU to prevent migrants from risking travel to the West Coast in the Atlantic Ocean - a boat trip - calling for the pressure necessary to suppress human smuggling networks.

But its rhetoric has done little to do what the rare anger of neighbors Mali and Senegal, whose citizens constituted a large amount of backward anger.

The Mali government expressed "outrage" at the treatment of its nationals in a statement in March, adding: "The arrest condition is a blatant violation of human rights, especially immigration rights."

In Senegal, members of parliament called it "xenophobia" and urged the government to investigate.

“We have seen such counter-trends in the past, but in terms of deportation and the violence used, it’s an intensity we’ve never seen before,” Hassan Ould Moctar, immigration researcher at the Institute of Oriental and African and African Studies (SOAS), told Al Jazeera.

The researchers say this is largely due to the EU. On the one hand, Mauritania may be under pressure from Brussels, and on the other hand, despite Nockjort denied the agreement, it may also make controversial rumors about the controversial rumors.

Is Mauritania the outside world of the EU?

Located on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean, Mauritania is one of the closest places to the mainland to the Canary Islands of Spain. It is a popular starting point for immigrants in the crowded coastal capital Nouakchott and the commercial northern city of Nouadhibou. Most people try to reach Canary, a Spanish enclave closer to the African continent, rather than Europe, from which they can seek asylum.

Since the 2000s, the EU has been friends with Nouakchott and the main border crossings in Morocco and Senegal due to its role as a transport hub, tilting funds to enable security officials there to prevent irregular immigration from launching crossings.

However, the EU has reached an unusual level of travel from the country after Mauritania's re-honed training last year, making it the No. 1 first place.

In a report last year, about 83% of the 7,270 people who arrived at canaries from Mauritania in January 2024 were noted in a report last year. This figure is up 1,184% compared to January 2023 when most people left Senegal. See also noted that about 3,600 people died on the Mauritania-Atlantic route.

Analysts and the EU will link the surge to the turmoil in the Sahel from Mali to Niger, including coups and attacks by several armed groups hoping to establish a caliph. In Mali, attacks on locals by armed groups and government forces have forced hundreds of people into Mauritania in recent weeks.

Ibrahim Drame of the Senegal Red Cross in the border town of Rosso told Al Jazeera that the immigration attack began in January after a new immigration law came into effect requiring a residence permit for any foreigner living on Mauritanian soil. However, he said most people don’t have the opportunity to apply for these permits. Prior to this, nationals of countries such as Senegal and Mali enjoyed free movement under bilateral agreements.

Drame noted: "The raids have been organized in the day and night, in large markets, bus stops and on main streets."

"Hundreds of them were even hunted in their own homes or workplaces without any explanation ... mainly women, children, people with chronic diseases, in extreme vulnerability, and even deprived of all their property, even cell phones," Drame said.

Last February, European Commission Director Ursula von der Leyen visited Nouakchott's Mohamed Ould Ghazouani to sign a 210 million euro ($235 million) "immigration partnership agreement". The EU said the agreement aims to strengthen "border security cooperation" with Frontex, EU border agencies and demolish networks of smugglers. The group has pledged another €4 million (US$4.49 million) this year to provide food, medical and psychosocial support to immigrants.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez also signed another border security agreement in Mauritania in August.

The fear and pain of the dark past

Meanwhile, the country’s black Mauritanians say the retreat movement awakens the feeling of exclusion and forced displacement in its communities. Some people are worried that deportation may target them.

Abdoulaye Sow, founder of the Mauritanian Human Rights Network (MNHRUS), told Al Jazeera that he understands why black people in the country feel threatened and needs to understand the country’s painful past.

Situated at the confluence of the Arab world's encounter with sub-Saharan Africa, Mauritania has historically been segregated, with Arab-Uncle political elites dominating the black population, some of whom were or remained enslaved. According to the Organization of Rights, it was not until 1981 that Mauritania passed a law to abolish slavery, but this practice remains.

The dark-skinned black Mauritanians are composed of Haratines, an Arabic-speaking group. There are also non-Arabic groups such as Fulani and Wolov, who are mainly from the Senegal border area in the southern part of the country.

Black Mauritanians were once again expelled from the country to Senegal’s truck, So said. It dates back to April 1989, when tensions broke out between Mauritanian herders and Senegalese farmers in border communities and led to the border war between 1989 and 1991. Both sides deployed their troops in a fierce gunfight. In Senegal, mobs attacked Mauritanian businessmen, and in Mauritania, security forces suppressed Senegalese nationals.

As the black liberation movement was also growing at the time, the Mauritanian government was worried about the coup, so it also hit the black Mauritanians.

By 1991, there were thousands of refugees on both sides. However, after the peace was achieved, the Mauritanian government expelled thousands of black Mauritanians under the guise of repatriating Senegal refugees. About 60,000 people were forced into Senegal. In the process, many people lose important citizenship and property documents.

“I’m a victim too,” Sow said. "It's not safe for black people who don't speak Arabic. I've witnessed armed people going to the houses, asking if people are Mauritanians, beating them, and even killing them."

That's why deported sub-Saharan immigrants scared the community, SOW said. Although he had written an open letter to warn black people about how they were affected, he said there was no response.

"When they started these recent deportations again, I knew where they were going, we've heard of a black Mauritanian being deported to Mali. We've been sending out an alarm for a long time, but the government hasn't responded."

The Mauritani government directed Al Jazeera to issue an earlier statement on deportation, but did not resolve the allegations that could be forced to deport black Mauritanians.

In a statement, the government said it welcomes legal immigrants from neighboring countries and targets irregular immigration and smuggling networks.

"Mauritania has made great efforts to enable West African nationals to obtain resident cards in accordance with simplified procedures to regulate their residency status," the statement said.

Although Mauritania finally agreed to take back its nationals between 2007 and 2012, many African-Moritanians still have no documents to prove their citizenship, as the continuous government enforces fluctuating documents and census laws. Sow said tens of thousands of statelessness are currently there. At least 16,000 refugees have chosen to stay in Senegal to avoid persecution in Mauritania.

Another concern about forced deportation is other issues, including national laws that require students in all schools to learn in Arabic, regardless of their culture, SOW said. Arabic is the common language of Mauritania, but African-American Morites in languages ​​like Wolov or Pula opposed what they call "forced Arabization." SOW says it's "cultural genocide."

Sow added that despite new residence permit laws, immigrants and black Mauritanian population should be protected.

"They have human rights, whether they are immigrants or not," he said.