Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez visited Gambia on Wednesday as part of a trip through three West African nations aimed at boosting cooperation in controlling irregular migration from the region to Spain’s Canary Islands. 

Sánchez met with Gambia’s President Adama Barrow and said afterward that the two countries had agreed to work together on security, as well as on opportunities for legal, temporary migration. 

“Spain, my country, wants to give a new impetus to our relationship with Africa,” Sánchez said in the capital, Banjul.

It was the first time a Spanish prime minister has visited the Gambia. 

Sánchez also met with a small number of Spanish law enforcement officers who are in Gambia to help the country deal with its border enforcement. Seven civil guard members and two police officers from Spain have been deployed to the country. 

Barrow thanked Spain for the officers’ help in dealing with irregular migration, saying they have provided “fantastic” cooperation.

Over 4,000 Gambians arrived in Europe through the deadly Atlantic route last year according to the U.N.’s migration agency. 

Last month, a boat carrying 300 migrants, mostly from Gambia and Senegal, capsized off Mauritania. More than a dozen died and at least 150 others went missing.