Mauritania fishing boats falsely portrayed as migrant fleet bound for Spain

A viral video showing dense lines of boats at Mauritania’s Nouadhibou port has been falsely presented as evidence that thousands of migrant vessels are about to sail for Spain’s Canary Islands. The claim has spread amid a real rise in arrivals to the islands, but the satellite images do not show preparations for a mass crossing.

The images are genuine but date from March 2025, and similar concentrations of boats appear in imagery from 2013 and 2005. Nouadhibou is a traditional fishing port that supports local families and markets; although it is also a migrant transit point, there is no evidence that people recently rescued off its coast departed from the port shown. Similar claims have circulated since at least 2020.