Police and forensic scientists in Spain are working to identify the bodies of 80 migrants found after a mass rush into the Ceuta enclave last week. Most of the migrants will be buried in Ceuta in the coming days, unless a relative asks for a body already identified to be repatriated.
Identification Efforts
Staff have taken fingerprints and DNA samples to connect the bodies with names and then with relatives. So far, only four have been identified through fingerprints already in Spanish databases or through DNA samples.
Spanish police have shared the fingerprints of all those who died with the Moroccan authorities and have opened an office by the border where relatives can file a missing persons report and supply DNA samples. A total of 19 reports had been filed by Thursday.
The influx and associated fatalities overwhelmed Ceuta’s five-man forensic team, which dealt with just 76 deaths in the whole of last year. Eight extra staff have been drafted in from the mainland and a bigger morgue has been set up at a former military hospital.
Autopsies revealed many of the 80 people whose bodies were brought ashore in Spain died from cardiopulmonary arrests — a common feature of drownings, pathologists said.
Original reporting: Appleton, WI News Feed (HLL/CB) — read the source article.
