Corpses of some of the 24 migrants found dead in a drifting canoe on the high seas piled up at the Institute of Legal Medicine of Santa Cruz de Tenerife awaiting burial.Miguel Velasco Almendral
The operator stretches out his arm and points to the individual chambers in which corpses are usually kept. “In this we have had to put two. And in this one too. And in this ... ”. It is the morgue of the Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences (IMLCF) of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, which in recent weeks has become another scene of the drama of the migration crisis in the Canary Islands. In an adjoining room is the so-called “catastrophe room”. In it, the lifeless bodies of most of the 24 migrants found dead on April 27 are accumulated on shelves, in the most tragic day of the Canarian migration route since Valentine's Day 2009, when 25 people died in a shipwreck. in Lanzarote. Those responsible for the forensic institution ask for help,since this latest tragedy has overwhelmed its facilities.
At noon on April 27, during training outside the limits of its route, an Air Rescue Service (SAR) plane spotted a drifting canoe, 270 nautical miles (about 500 kilometers) southwest of the Canary Island from El Hierro. He was "in the middle of nowhere," described Commander Ignacio Crespo. The scene on board chilled the blood: three survivors - two men and a woman - exhausted after more than 20 days of travel, clinging to life surrounded by 24 corpses. One of the two men was discharged last week and remains sheltered by the Red Cross with psychological consequences. The other two survivors are admitted to hospitals in Tenerife.
What the Army rescuers found that afternoon is, however, only part of the story. The NGO Caminando Fronteras, which was contacted by relatives of the woman who was saved, maintains that this boat coincides with one that left Mauritania on April 5 with 59 people on board. If this information is confirmed, in addition to the 24 bodies, there would be another 32 missing.
The so-called Canarian route is the most dangerous to reach Europe, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Their data specify that 849 people lost their lives trying to cross it in 2020, one for every 26 who managed to disembark in the archipelago.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and IOM estimate that some 90 people have lost their lives at sea this year on that route.
Just over fifty bodies have been recovered.
The call
canarian route
it is the most dangerous to reach Europe, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
According to their counts, 849 people lost their lives trying to cross it in 2020, one for every 26 people who managed to disembark in the archipelago.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and IOM estimate that some 90 people have lost their lives at sea this year on this route.
Of this number, just over fifty bodies have been recovered.
Endless journey
Almost two weeks after the tragic discovery on the high seas, the 24 bodies remain without rest at the Tenerife forensic institute.
The process to identify the deceased is complicated, slow and bureaucratic.
And relatives want to mourn a grave with a name.
"We are overwhelmed, desperate," explains its director, Jesús Vega.
"The bodies are already in an advanced state of putrefaction, and this process will continue no matter how much we keep them in refrigerators," he says.
Vega points out who he considers the main responsible for the collapse: Arona's Court of Instruction 2.
Jesús Vega, director of the Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Miguel Velasco Almendral
Sources of the Superior Court of the Canary Islands reply that the delay is due, fundamentally, to the fact that "relatives of the deceased are coming to move the corpses to their places of origin."
Regarding the claimed bodies, these sources maintain that police work is being carried out to identify them.
The remains, Vega insists, could already be buried.
“The law allows them to be buried with the data available, and as they are identified, they are assigned a name.
And, if the relative appears, the body is handed over to him ”, he emphasizes.
“If not, how long will we have to wait?
One month?
Two months?
Five years?".
Rains, it pours.
The IMLCF of Santa Cruz de Tenerife still conserves bodies of migrants from boats that arrived last August, September and November, all pending burial decisions from the courts.
And we must add the corpses of residents of the islands, nationals or foreigners.
The arrival of the patera with the 24 bodies has coincided with works in the morgue, which reduce the number of cold rooms available.
The institute is not the only entity that has been overcome with the tragedy known on the 27th. After the arrival of the patera, the Arona City Council declared itself unable to take on such a large number of burials given the limited capacity of its cemetery, currently in expansion works, according to a spokesman for the Town Hall. The institution asked the Canarian government for help, which surveyed other municipalities to house the bodies. Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Candelaria came to the rescue: the Capital City Council will accept 15 of the bodies, and that of Candelaria, the remaining nine. Both are waiting for the judge to process a petition to give rest to the 24 bodies.
Santa Lastenia Cemetery, in Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
The white-painted niches are prepared for the burial of 15 of the 24 migrants who died a few weeks ago.Miguel Velasco Almendral
Normative
The law establishes that the corpses must be buried in the municipality in which they died.
Almost all of the migrants who enter Tenerife aboard boats or cayucos do so through Los Cristianos, a port town and tourist center in the municipality of Arona (southwest of Tenerife), which increases the workload of local courts.
For a body to be able to leave the premises of the Institute of Legal Medicine, there must be someone who claims it before the courts. Usually it is a private individual through funeral services. When time passes and there is no one to ask for the remains, it is the social services who are in charge of financing and organizing the burial. The municipalities may be part of the problem: in fact, four of the bodies that block the center are waiting for various consistories to come to collect them.