Bodies of nine migrants found on an African boat off the north coast Brazilian Amazon region He was buried with a solemn ceremony on Thursday in Belém, the capital of Pará state.
On April 13, fishermen found the boat drifting off the coast of Para, carrying bodies that were already decomposing. Brazilian officials later said that documents found on board the ship indicated that the victims were migrants from Mali and Mauritania and that the boat had departed from this country after January 17.
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The dead were buried in a secular ceremony organized by several groups involved in their recovery, such as united nations refugee agencythe Red Cross and the International Organization for Migration, as well as the Brazilian police, navy and civil defense agencies.
As their coffins were lowered into graves dug in the ground, a tropical rain fell and those present watched in respectful silence.
Officials stand near nine coffins containing the remains of unidentified migrants at the Sao Jorge cemetery in Belem, Pará state, Brazil, Thursday, April 25, 2024. The bodies of nine migrants found on an African boat off the northern coast of Brazil’s Amazon region were buried with a solemn ceremony on Thursday. (AP Photo/Paulo Santos)
Their approximately 12-metre (39-foot) boat contained 25 raincoats and 27 mobile phones, suggesting that the original number of passengers was much higher. Local officials said this also meant that people of other nationalities could also be among the dead.
It was a rustic blue and white fiberglass boat that, when found, had neither motor, nor tiller, nor rudder. The shape of its canoe is similar to the fishing boats of Mauritania often used by fleeing migrants West Africa and aims to enter the EU through Spain’s Canary Islands.
An Associated Press investigation published last year showed that at least seven boats from northwest Africa were found in the Caribbean and Brazil in 2021. Everyone carried the dead bodies, like a ship found in mercury.
No victim has been identified yet. Officials said their method of burial would allow for the bodies of the dead to be exhumed later if families of the dead are located and wish to transfer the bodies back to their home countries.
Brazil’s Institute of Criminology in the capital Brasília is conducting a forensic examination of the remains, and federal police say they are in contact with Interpol and foreign organizations to provide final results.
This year has seen a 500% increase in the number of people attempting to cross from Africa’s northwest coast to the EU, according to Spain’s interior ministry, with the majority departing from Mauritania. But it is a dangerous route with strong Atlantic winds, and boats that lose their way remain adrift for months and drift off to far-flung destinations, often causing migrants to die of dehydration and malnutrition.
The reasons pushing people towards such boats are diverse and interconnected: lack of jobs and prospects for a better life, the effects of climate change, increasing insecurity and political instability, among others.
More than 14,000 African migrants have arrived in the Canary Islands so far this year, according to the Spanish ministry. In February, the EU and Mauritania signed a 210 million euro ($225 million) deal aimed at cracking down on people smuggling and stopping migrant boats.
With hundreds more West African migrants reported missing, families in Mauritania have formed a commission to search for loved ones, and are anxiously awaiting information from Brazil.
Bachirou Saw of Mauritania earlier this year buried a nephew who died during the difficult Atlantic crossing shortly after arriving on the Spanish island of El Hierro. He is still searching for another nephew, Kadija Saw, who left in January and is nowhere to be found. He is closely monitoring the news coming from Brazil.
Saw, who also has Spanish citizenship and immigrated to Europe by plane 30 years ago when visas were easier to obtain, said he is trying to convince young people not to migrate by boat. They set up a WhatsApp group to alert migrants to the dangers of the sea journey and share information with desperate relatives, and have counted at least 1,500 missing from Mauritania, Mali and Senegal in the past six months. While the majority of migrants to Europe are men, the number of women boarding boats is also increasing.
“I have their ID on my phone,” said Saw, who receives messages every day from families looking for their loved ones. Together with others, he has organized trips to Morocco to look inside prisons and morgues. Moroccan authorities often stop migrants trying to reach Spain and detain them before deporting them. But Saw’s nephew was also not there. He also visited the Canary Islands to examine the morgues there.
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Saw’s sister is lonely. “Every day she buys credits to listen to our audios, she lives for it, she doesn’t eat, she’s thin, just thinks about her son,” Saw said. And she is not alone.
“It’s very sad, half the villages are dancing because their sons have come (to Spain),” he said, “but the other half are crying because they have lost their sons to the sea.”
