Yes, that is the case. We at IRA Mauritania have used our resources to establish our own statistics, and we have come up with the figure of 20%. The Walk Free Foundation, an Australian NGO, has prepared statistics and found that the figure was 4%.
We have asked the United Nations to persuade the Mauritanian government to allow an independent survey to be conducted to establish statistics on slavery, to which it initially agreed.
The United Nations Development Programme, or UNDP, and the European Union provided funding for the survey to ascertain the number of slaves and their circumstances in Mauritania. Unfortunately, the Mauritanian government backpedalled and refused to allow the survey to proceed, even though the UNDP had recruited an international expert.
We therefore concluded that the government was afraid the entire world would discover the extent of slavery in Mauritania. Denial of slavery is the Mauritanian government's diplomatic and official line. If it allows a survey to be conducted, it will show that the government is wrong to say there is no slavery, whereas it is widespread. That is why the government has refused to permit the survey that the UN and the European Union have already funded.