Wednesday 20 May 2009

Visas for Mauritania now required in advance

A long gap in my rigorous blogging schedule. . .
Apologies to anyone who thought this blog had given up the ghost.

Mail from another Mauritania reader:

I am emailing you because there has been a change in Mauritanian border policy that might affect the readers of your blog. I have recently embarked on a journey through West Africa. I flew into Marrakech and planned to go overland from there. However, when I got to the Mauri border on May 13, I was warned by a lot of French tourists on the Moroccan side who were turned back by Mauritania to get their visa in Rabat. I made the trip through no mans land myself with a Mauritanian trader who knew the staff well, just to be sure. However, there was (and is) no way around the new policy (bribery, forged documents didn't help), that had been instated only a few hours prior (at 13:00). Everyone who needs a visa now needs to get one prior to arrival.
Joris Bouwsma

Any further news on this?
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2 comments:

  1. we crossed the border Moroco Mauritania on the 12/07/2009 whitout a visa and we didn't have any problem at all. They issued a 3 days visa for 20 Euros and we stayed for more than 3 days without extending it and we didn't have a porblem when we left either.

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  2. I am now at Dakhla in Morocco and I just heard from a guy with a Swedish passport that he and hes friends (with for example with Spanish passport) were turned back to get their visas from Rabat (Morocco).
    He said that nothing helped. They apparently had strict rules and did not take bribes.
    I hope to find a solution that I do not need to go all the way back to get the visa. I wonder how consistent their policy is.
    Really fucked up situation.

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