Mauritania

Mauritania, maintaining its long-standing open-door policy, hosts over 305,000 refugees and asylum-seekers – the vast majority from Mali – most in the arid Hodh Chargui region, home to Mbera camp, as well as in Nouakchott and Nouadhibou. Arrivals continue in 2026 amid ongoing insecurity in Mali. Mauritania has also become an increasingly important transit country along the Atlantic Route, with mixed movements creating additional protection challenges and pressure on asylum and migration management systems.

UNHCR leads the interagency response in Hodh Chargui through the Refugee Coordination Forum, working with national and local authorities to strengthen asylum, documentation, and protection systems. Its multi-year strategy focuses on access to documentation, livelihoods and economic inclusion, basic services (education, health, WASH), social protection, and environmental resilience – facilitating refugee inclusion in national systems and greater national ownership of the response.

In line with UNHCR's 50by35 vision and Mauritania's commitments at the 2019 and 2023 Global Refugee Forums, UNHCR in Mauritania works to expand refugees' access to national services and socio-economic opportunities, in close partnership with the government, development actors, UN agencies, NGOs, refugee-led organizations, and host communities.