NOUAKCHOTT: Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Wednesday highlighted the benefits brought by immigrants during a visit to Mauritania where he spoke after anti-immigrant unrest in a Spanish town.

Sanchez, stood alongside Mauritania’s President Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani, told reporters that Spain and other rich countries owe a lot to migrants for their development.

Mauritania has however become a key staging post for undocumented migrants who take a dangerous sea route from West Africa to Europe, with many heading for Spain.

“Today, the progress and good economic situation of Spain owes a lot to the contribution made by immigration, to the people who have come to develop their life plans there,” Sanchez said.

The Spanish leader called for closer cooperation with countries like Mauritania “to guarantee migration that is safe, regular, organized, that mutually benefits our societies.”

He spoke as Spanish authorities seek to calm several nights of troubles in the town of Torre Pacheco where migrants have been the target of violence since an attack on a 68-year-old man last week. Spain’s far-right has seized on the unrest to call for deportations of migrants.

Sanchez has defended the role of migration and in August last year went to three West African nations, including Mauritania, seeking to develop “circular migration” that brings trained workers that Spain needs for its economy.

Thousands of would-be migrants have died in recent years seeking to make the sea trip from Mauritania and other North African states to Spain and other European Mediterranean countries.

According to the Spanish charity Caminando Fronteras, nearly 10,500 people died at sea in 2024 alone. Some 46,800 African migrants arrived in Spain’s Canary islands in 2024, according to official figures, though numbers have fallen this year.

Spanish and Mauritanian officials on Wednesday signed four accords on transport and infrastructure, welfare, cybersecurity and national parks, the Spanish government said in a statement.