Around 70 bodies are expected to be buried as families continue to search for missing relatives.
The first of dozens of unidentified migrants who died during a mass crossing into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta were buried on Friday, three weeks after the deadly attempt to enter the territory from Morocco.
At Ceuta's Muslim cemetery, gravediggers wearing protective overalls and face masks lowered four bodies wrapped in white body bags into graves lined with cinder blocks. A Muslim cleric recited a brief prayer as hearses arrived with more bodies.
Said Mohammed, the cemetery's acting manager, said around 70 bodies would be buried over the coming days, with between 10 and 12 burials planned each day.
About 95% of the bodies have not yet been identified, Mohammed said. Each grave has been marked with a numbered stone so the remains can be traced if the person is later identified and relatives arrange repatriation.
The migrants are being buried according to Muslim rites, with their bodies placed facing Mecca and covered with soil.
Authorities say between 5,000 and 8,000 migrants remain in Ceuta after at least 72,000 people crossed from Morocco on 30 July. The rush left 82 migrants dead on the Spanish side of the border, while Morocco confirmed another 14 deaths.
Only six migrants have been identified so far, all adult Moroccan men, according to the latest figures from a Ceuta court.
For families in Morocco, the wait for news has been agonising. Relatives of missing migrants have been appealing for information on social media and pressing authorities to help locate their loved ones.
Spanish and Moroccan authorities have been comparing fingerprints with databases from both countries and collecting DNA samples from relatives who have come forward.
Lieutenant Colonel Carlos Atoche of Spain's Civil Guard, who heads its crime division, said identifying the victims had been made harder because Moroccan relatives had difficulty legally crossing into Ceuta to provide DNA samples.
As the burials continue, numbered stones now mark the graves of people whose families may still be waiting to learn what happened to them.
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European leaders gathered in Dublin on Thursday, 12 November, for the ninth European Political Community (EPC) summit, with security, defence and energy high on the agenda. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev held talks focused on peace, trade and regional cooperation.
Here's your AnewZ Daily Brief for 11 November. Today, we cover Russia-Ukraine peace talks, political tensions in Washington, strikes in Spain, espionage allegations involving Nvidia's CEO, and climate negotiations at COP31 in Türkiye.
Iran will not let a single particle of its enriched nuclear material leave the country, and any new U.S. attack would be met with strikes on distant American bases, Iranian security chief Mohsen Rezaei has said.
Four million workers across Spain joined a general strike on Wednesday over the country’s deepening housing crisis, unions said, bringing disruption to factories, ports, shops and public transport just weeks before a snap general election.
European leaders gathered in Dublin on Thursday, 12 November, for the ninth European Political Community (EPC) summit, with security, defence and energy high on the agenda. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev held talks focused on peace, trade and regional cooperation.
Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang is stepping down amid reports linking him to a woman suspected by U.S. authorities of spying for China, throwing the future of the $4 trillion chipmaker into uncertainty.
Tajikistan is urging regional allies to step up support for its border with Afghanistan following a series of deadly armed incidents. Despite building more than 80 new border outposts, Dushanbe says it needs further assistance to secure its southern frontier.
Eight people have been killed and at least 17 injured after an apartment building collapsed into a neighbouring construction site in Brooklyn, New York, as rescuers continued searching the rubble for possible survivors.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has thanked U.S. President Donald Trump for facilitating talks between Russia and Ukraine, but warned that any foreign troops deployed in Ukraine would be considered legitimate targets by Moscow.
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