Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
Spain began burying unidentified migrants in Ceuta on Friday, three weeks after the country’s deadliest border crisis left more than 90 people dead. A rights group has asked for the burials to be stopped until every effort is made to identify the bodies and return them to Morocco, where most of the migrants are believed to have come from.
At the same time, the crisis in the small Spanish territory bordering Morocco continues, with local authorities saying up to 10,000 migrants, including women and children, could still be in Ceuta. Spain’s national government has put the number at around 5,000.
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At a Muslim cemetery in Ceuta, 18 migrants were laid to rest as prayers were recited. Their identities are not known. Funeral workers lowered white body bags into cinderblock graves marked only with numbers and then covered them with soil. More migrants are expected to be buried soon.
Many of those who died either drowned or were killed in a stampede as they tried to cross a breakwater barrier near a border checkpoint. The deaths came after more than 72,000 people poured into Ceuta, fuelled by misinformation, poverty and a lack of opportunities.
The Moroccan Association for Human Rights, a left-leaning non-governmental organisation, said the burials in Ceuta should be halted until every effort had been made to identify the bodies and repatriate them to Morocco. In a statement, the NGO asked Morocco’s foreign ministry to ensure that “the bodies are returned to the families so they can be buried with dignity”.
The group called the burials in Ceuta a “new human tragedy”, adding to the “disaster of displacement and missing persons”.
A spokesperson for Ceuta’s city government said last week that the paperwork to repatriate the bodies of the dead had been completed, but Morocco’s government had not accepted it. Morocco’s foreign ministry did not respond to questions from The Associated Press about the burials that began on Friday or suggestions that Morocco is blocking the repatriation of identified migrant bodies.
While most of those who crossed into Ceuta in late July returned to Morocco almost immediately, the territory is still dealing with a humanitarian crisis as authorities and residents try to shelter and care for those who remain. Moroccan and Spanish authorities have blamed social media rumours and human smuggling networks for the deadly episode, while migrants said unemployment and low wages drove them to make the journey.
All of those buried on Friday were men, said Said Mohammed, the cemetery’s acting manager. He said the graves were marked with numbered stones in case families come forward in future. In keeping with Islamic custom, the bodies were buried facing Mecca. Just across the sea lies mainland Europe, the destination the migrants had hoped to reach.
The burials in Ceuta have underlined both the scale of the border crisis and the unresolved questions over the identities of those who died and whether their bodies will be returned to their families.
With PTI Inputs
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SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
