A boat was found adrift on the Ro San Juan coast in the Mara Trinidad Snchez province in the north of the Dominican Republic. Civil Defense, the Dominican Navy and local authorities announced that 14 skeletons were found on the boat, and that documents on the boat identified the remains as those from Senegal and Mauritania.
The Dominican Navy said in a statement that the boat, of unknown origin, was found by a local fisherman and that authorities were notified. It was reported that in addition to the skeletons, mobile phones, backpacks and identification documents belonging to Senegalese and Mauritanian citizens were also found on the boat. In addition, 12 packages of a substance resembling cocaine or heroin were found in a backpack and these substances were seized for further analysis to determine their exact nature. The statement noted that the skeletons were disinfected to prevent possible diseases and then sent to forensic medicine for examination.
Authorities are considering the possibility that the boat was diverted from its destination in Europe and swept into the Caribbean by the currents. The exact cause of death of those on board is unknown, and a full-scale investigation has been launched into the incident.
In 2021, 14 dead bodies were found on a boat off the coast of the Caribbean island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. It was determined that the deceased were Mauritanians and were on their way to the Spanish Canary Islands. In a similar incident, in April, a boat carrying 9 migrants from Mauritania and Mali reached the shores of Brazil. (İHA)
