The documents and belongings that were on the boat with nine bodies that arrived in Brazil have offered valuable clues to begin to piece together the deadly journey. The Brazilian police suspect that there were 25 people on board from Mauritania and Mali, perhaps from some other country, who left the east coast of Africa towards the Canary Islands (Spain) after last January and who probably died of hunger and of thirst, as explained by the superintendent of the federal police in the State of Pará, Jose Roberto Peres, to the press late Tuesday.
“The investigations lead us to understand that this vessel most likely left Mauritania and was destined for the Canary Islands. There is an intense flow of illegal immigration between these two countries,” stressed the person responsible for the investigations.
Inside the canoe, along with the nine corpses in an advanced state of decomposition, the researchers found 25 raincoats, which leads them to point out that this was the number of emigrants on board. Of them, 23 were the same, all green. The other two, yellow. For police chief Peres, the raincoats “demonstrate that behind this there is an organization that probably rented the boat and sold the seats” to undertake the dangerous journey across the Atlantic to Europe.
The nine bodies have already been transferred to the Institute of Legal Medicine in Belém, the state capital, where analyzes began this Wednesday. “There the cause of death will be determined, which was probably the lack of food and water,” added the superintendent. The investigators have also concluded, after analyzing the belongings and documents located on the boat, that it set sail from Africa, specifically Mauritania, after January 17 of this year. But they have not explained what the specific clue is that has led them to this conclusion.
“The ship was probably lost at sea. “She must have caught a sea current and arrived in Brazil,” explained the head of the police investigation, who added that “in 2021, seven vessels identical to this one were located. Most in the Caribbean and one of them in Ceará [otro Estado del litoral nordeste de Brasil]”.
This last boat to arrive in Brazil was discovered on an island off the coast of Pará. Moving the boat with the bodies to the mainland, specifically to the city of Bragança, the closest, upriver, was a complex operation that took a day and a half.
The boat, about 13 meters long, was the first clue that pointed to the African origin of the victims. It has the size and shape of the canoes that Mauritanians use for fishing and that have also been used for years to travel the distance between cities like Nouadhibou and the Canary archipelago. Emigrant arrivals to its coasts have skyrocketed in recent months, multiplying by six so far this year compared to the same period in 2023.
Superintendent Peres announced that the forensics' work will last several days, probably until the weekend. The boat that arrived from Africa three years ago to the State of Ceará, in Brazil, had three bodies of Mauritanians inside. The police also located dozens of phones and money from several African countries with them. That year, at least six other boats that drifted across the Atlantic were located, all of them with the bodies of Africans on board, according to a journalistic investigation by the Associated Press. One of the ships reached the coast of Nicaragua.
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