Bodies washing up in Spain: Shackled bodies with hands and feet tied linked to boat that arrived in Alicante

The Majorca Daily Bulletin reports that the discovery of bodies with shackled hands and feet, found in the waters off the Balearics, are possible migrants. Chief colonel of the Civil Guard on the islands, Alejandro Hernández, said on Monday: “We believe that these bodies that appeared here were migrants who were travelling in a boat that arrived in Alicante”.

The colonel reported that the National Police in Alicante is in charge of the investigation into five bodies that appeared bound in Balearics waters, which are being investigated as possible murders. He added: “There is an investigation that we are not conducting because it is linked to these bodies that have appeared on a boat that arrived on the coast of Alicante. We are investigating the bodies that are turning up drowned.”

Here the chief colonel is referring to the 31 bodies found between January and June in the water or on the coast of the islands. Hernández said that the death of migrants at sea ‘is a tragedy’ and expressed his hope that ‘no more people will be added’ to the list of missing persons on the migration route.

The Government delegate in the Balearics, Alfonso Rodríguez, added that the discovery of the bound bodies highlights the ‘tragedy’ unfolding on the boats arriving from Algeria and criticised those who ‘trivialise this migratory movement’. Rodríguez stressed that the ‘Spanish government, within its powers, is working to save these lives’ and that ‘a great deal of effort must be made to cope with the increase in migration’.