CEUTA, Spain: In front of a dozen reporters and a handful of local people, a crew of gravediggers in disposable protective overalls and facemasks on Friday started burying some of the scores of migrants who died in a mass crossing into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in North Africa three weeks ago.
A Muslim cleric read a quick prayer as the workers lowered the first four victims wrapped in white body bags into cinderblock-lined graves side-by-side at Ceuta’s Muslim cemetery, while hearses were bringing more bodies.
The cemetery’s acting manager, Said Mohammed, said the plan was to bury around 70 bodies in the coming days, with 10 to 12 burials each day.
About 95 percent of those being buried have not yet been identified, but each grave was marked with a numbered stone in case the body was claimed and repatriated eventually, he said.
Authorities say between 5,000 and 8,000 people remain in Ceuta after at least 72,000 people crossed from Morocco on July 30 in a rush that left 82 migrants dead on the Spanish side of the border, with 14 more deaths confirmed by Morocco.
