The Civil Guard, specifically its Río Tajo patrol boat, has been involved in a highly complex situation. Despite participating in efforts to rescue immigrants in North Africa, he had to fire shots into the air to stop the 170 men who were picked up by members of the Armed Institute in Mauritanian waters three days ago.

As explained to this newspaper by sources from the Armed Institute, the twenty Civil Guard agents on board the Tagus River rescued 170 men in Mauritanian waters who were traveling in a cayuco and who were at risk of drifting. These sources highlight the fact that all those rescued were men, “strong”, and that there were no women or children on the boat.

After the rescue, difficult since the Civil Guard vessel is not large, it was decided to travel to the Mauritanian port of Nouadhibou, on the border with Western Sahara, to disembark and repatriate the rescued.

Once there, after a “complicated navigation”, a Mauritanian gendarme came on board to assess the situation. Despite Frontex’s efforts, the Mauritanian police command refused to allow those rescued to be handed over to their country. And he did not allow them to set foot on land, so the 170 men remained in the boat while the police and political leaders discussed and made the decision. Despite the force that Frontex tried to impose in the negotiations, Mauritania did not agree to disembark. Some sources point out that those responsible for Frontex “were not very generous or the Mauritanian commanders demanded a lot” when agreeing to disembark, referring to unofficial payments.

Thus, the Civil Guard was left with the contingent of rescued on board. After consultations with Madrid, it was decided that the Río Tajo ship would travel to the Canary Islands to take the 170 migrants there. The agents tried to explain to them the change of course and that the Mauritanian authorities had not given the go-ahead for their disembarkation. The rescued, between communication difficulties and hunger, began to show signs of restlessness.

The destination set by Madrid was the Canary Islands and the ship is scheduled to arrive on the 29th. But, along the way, the members of the Armed Institute have had to stop at least once an attempted mutiny by those rescued. According to these sources, the situation was delicate since there were 170 “strong men” facing the patrol boat, with about twenty agents.

Thus, on at least one occasion, the Spanish agents had to fire into the air with their service weapons to “stop” the advance of those rescued who were protesting the situation in which they were travelling. The agents had even had to cook rice in a machine area to be able to keep the rescued.

But that discomfort was rising in tone and the guards felt threatened, so they used their regulation weapons, with live fire to shoot into the air and stop the momentum of the 170 people on board.

During the journey, those rescued travel on the upper deck of the patrol boat, while the agents have had to take shelter at times inside the boat to avoid new mutiny attempts.