A fisherman brings in two corpses found floating at sea. A few kilometres (miles) up the coast, a naked body lies washed up on a barren stretch of sand.
This desolate sun-blasted coastline in northern Mauritania, where the Sahara desert meets the Atlantic, has become the latest staging post for migrants fleeing poverty in Africa and local authorities say they are struggling to cope.
Every night, scores of mostly young men from around West Africa pack themselves into open fishing boats and leave Nouadhibou for Spain's Canary Islands, hoping to enter Europe illegally and find work.
"This is a phenomenon that is taking on ever greater proportions," Colonel Mohamed Ould El Ghazouani, Mauritania's Director of National Security, told Reuters late on Monday after touring the port at Nouadhibou.
Local officials estimate there are 10,000-15,000 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa in and around Nouadhibou waiting to earn enough money to pay for the crossing to Spain. Authorities say they have apprehended more than 600 over the last month alone.
"We are doing the best we can ... but we do not even make the pretence of being able to do anything on our own to stop it," he said, adding joint patrols with Spain's Civil Guard were one possibility. Thousands of illegal immigrants from Africa land on Europe's southern shores each year in rickety and overcrowded boats. Hundreds more die in the attempt.
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