A cruise ship transferred five bodies to Cartagena early this Wednesday, which it located last night at sea, about 140 miles east of the town of Cabo de Palos, according to sources from the central Government Delegation in the Region of Murcia. On Monday, a dinghy with three deceased people on board had also arrived on the coast of Cartagena, and the National Police are now investigating whether the bodies found last night were traveling on board that same vessel.
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The crew of the cruise ship, the Sapphire Princess, which had departed from Cagliari, on the Italian island of Sardinia, saw the bodies floating in the sea and raised the alarm. A device was then activated that rescued the bodies and even tried to locate other corpses in the area, since only one day before, on Monday afternoon, a dinghy with five occupants, three of them deceased, had arrived on the coast of the Region of Murcia.
According to the statements of the two survivors, at least 13 other people were traveling on board the barge that would have departed from Algeria. However, for the moment “it cannot be confirmed” that the five deceased rescued by the cruise ship were traveling in that same dinghy, according to information provided by the Government Delegation.
What the state body has confirmed is that one of the two survivors has been arrested. The Police suspect that this man was the skipper of the illegal vessel, while the other survivor was part of the group that paid for a passage to reach Europe by this route. The two men had to be treated in the hospital with symptoms of malnutrition and dehydration, but have already been discharged. Investigators are also trying to clarify whether the missing people were forced to jump into the sea due to lack of water and food, as has happened on other occasions in these tragic journeys.
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According to sources close to the case, the crossing between Algeria and the Region of Murcia usually takes less than a day, although initial hypotheses suggest that this vessel had been adrift for about three weeks. This same Wednesday, the Civil Guard also intercepted another dinghy off the coast of Cartagena with 24 people on board, two of them minors. In this case, all were in good condition.
So far this year, and until April 15, more than 5,000 people have arrived in Spain irregularly by sea, 61.2% less than in the same period last year, according to data provided by the Ministry of Interior, which has not published data by autonomous communities.
