
School helps migrants in Mauritania; can it keep them from leaving for Europe?
Voice of America
FILE - Boys sit in a classroom at Nouadhibou's Organization for the Support of Migrants and Refugees, Mauritania, Jan. 7, 2025.
Eager students from throughout west Africa raise their hands as teachers guide them through math and classical Arabic. Then they race outdoors to meet their parents, who clean houses, drive informal taxis or gut sardines in Chinese factories.

In this image taken from video, Amir Ali rests his injured foot on the bed in his home in Gujranwala district, Pakistan, on Feb. 3, 2025. Ali was rescued in mid-January from a stranded migrant boat in the Atlantic Ocean. A roadside sign leading to Dhola village, Gujarat district, Pakistan, commemorates Chaudhry Atif Morsi and Chaudhry Sufyan Gorsi as martyrs, Feb. 4, 2025. The men died on a stranded boat in the Atlantic Ocean on their way from Mauritania to Spain’s Canary Islands in January. Kashif Ali, shown in this undated photo, works in boat making in Italy. He spent hundreds of dollars to get a work permit to the European country almost a decade ago. He told VOA he earns much more there than he could in Pakistan. Pakistanis are among the top three users of Eastern Mediterranean and Central Mediterranean migrant routes. In this image taken from video, Amir Ali, second from right, rests as friends look at his injured foot on Feb. 3, 2025, at his home in Gujranwala district, Pakistan. Despite Ali’s horrific experience, his friends say they want to try getting to Europe.