The bodies of nine African migrants found on a boat off Brazil's northern coast were buried in a secular ceremony in the city of Belem on Thursday (April 25th).
The ceremony was organized by groups involved in recovering the bodies. Among these groups were the UN Refugee Agency, the Red Cross and the International Organization for Migration, as well as Brazil's police, navy and civil defense agencies.
Authorities said the burial method would allow for subsequent exhumations in case the families of the deceased were found and wished to take the bodies back to their home countries.
9 corpses, probably from Mauritania and Mali, were found by Brazilian fishermen on April 13 in a drifting boat.
The roughly 12-metre vessel was carrying 25 raincoats and 27 mobile phones, suggesting the original number of passengers was significantly higher.
It also means people of other nationalities may have been among the dead, local officials said.
Brazilian officials believe the ship left Mauritania after January 17. Her passengers most likely headed to Europe via the Spanish Canary Islands.
The Brazilian Institute of Criminology in the capital Brasilia is conducting a forensic examination of the remains, and federal police say they are in contact with Interpol and foreign organizations to provide any results.
An Associated Press investigation published last year revealed that at least seven ships from northwest Africa were found in the Caribbean and Brazil in 2021.
All carried dead bodies, like the vessel found in Para.
None of the victims have yet been identified.