Fierce competitors between funeral houses: bites, deception of households and photographs of our bodies

An assistant to the anatomical forensic “wished bitches” from funeral houses to assist with the allocation of funerals and returns. Hospital mortuary guards who ask as much as 400 euros to ship a service on a plate. Hearse van drivers promote confidential data for 200 euros in order that firms can discover family and win contracts. And, on the finish of the chain, funeral houses are suspected of paying bribes left and proper and deceiving households in a fierce competitors to pay money for the our bodies. In dispute, our bodies of immigrants, however not solely. And, between them, envelopes, money funds, bizum, tens of 1000’s of euros with out justification… and exploitation of grief.

An investigation by the Civil Guard an alleged felony group that made a dwelling off of taking again immigrant gangs We arrived in Spain by boat, which was found in March on the tip of the iceberg of an trade that hides underground with few scruples. The abstract of the case, to which EL PAÍS had entry, exhibits how amongst these investigated and their connections are exchanging photographs of useless folks in a state of decomposition and paying suggestions commissions to anybody who helps get a brand new one. a very regular buyer. It would not matter which strategies.

It’s anticipated that the 14 that the Civil Guard investigated in March on 14 crimes, relying on how they had been concerned: disclosure of secrets and techniques, felony group, bribery, affect peddling, falsification of paperwork, crimes towards respect for the particular person died… staff and house owners of funeral houses who work collectively, officers from the anatomical forensic division of Murcia and Cartagena, a hearse driver, mediators and a colleague of an NGO devoted to figuring out the useless of the boats.

“The person from the Anatomical of Cartagena needs bitches, my blessing, what an aunt, at all times the identical, whose daughter research on the college, sailor garments,” says an undertaker’s associate to the her husband, in response to phone interventions . “Pay attention, are you going to depart one thing? […] Have you learnt what occurs? You’ve an excessive amount of to share […] You would have some particulars with us…”, this forensic assistant asks a funeral dwelling employee.

Work will start in Cartagena in November 2023, however the tents prolong to Alicante, Murcia, Almería and the Balearic Islands, areas the place the our bodies of the boats leaving Algeria and Morocco arrive. The Civil Guard begins to research who and why took a collection of photographs of our bodies that had been used to contact households, establish the deceased and, then, persuade them to make a cope with a few of funeral houses. By pulling the thread, the investigators and the choose discovered that the advertising of photographs and confidential data is a standard follow amongst mediators, facilitators, NGOs and even representatives of the Civil Guards themselves.

“The Civil Guard despatched the photographs to my boss,” Francisco C., a type of investigated for collaborating with the community and receiving cash in change for data, instructed Decide Francisco C. Francisco, NGO volunteer Worldwide Middle for the Identification of Lacking Migrants (CIPIMD), little question when he identified the supply of the data obtained by his boss: from civil guards in Garrucha, Adra and Huércal (Almeria), varied posts in Cartagena, Alicante, Valencia, Ibiza, Menorca, Huelva, Malaga, Cádiz, Ceuta, Melilla and the Canary Islands. “They despatched him to us to search for the household after which they had been answerable for doing the paperwork.” [de identificación]”, he stated. Sources from the Civil Guard already defended in March the “correct motion” of their brokers with out evaluating the statements of these held in courtroom.

It’s no coincidence that the trade is managed by foreigners. In Spain, nearly half of the inhabitants has life insurance coverage, in response to the employers’ affiliation Unespa. This covers bills if a member of the family dies and leaves little room for funeral houses to enter. Insurance coverage is a much more widespread custom amongst foreigners and non-existent when coping with immigrants on board a ship. As well as, in these instances the households normally return the our bodies to their nations, the costliest service on the record, which begins at 2,000 euros and even reaches 10,000 . The mediators take away the household’s calls. In 2023 alone, nearly 500 migrant deaths had been recorded on the route that results in Spain via the Mediterranean Sea.

“closed world”

The examine assumes that there’s a supervisor, Rachid S., who via his associates on the earth and within the consulates of Morocco and Algeria and thru the community he established round a form of monopoly carried out over the our bodies of North Africans. within the space, whether or not they’re irregular immigrants or not. The research present how malpractice is damaging the trade. “It is a closed world that has contacts in hospitals, forensic anatomical facilities, emergency ambulances and officers. […]”, defined one of many witnesses within the case, the proprietor of a funeral providers firm used to listening to about commissions and scams in his career. This witness expresses “a number of occasions”, when they’re on a physique ” to gather Arab residents”, they’ve referred to as the workplace to warn them in these phrases: “Hey, I’m Rachid, you have got collected some Moroccan, Algerian. … That is our one” .

The officers seized Rachid’s telephone and searched his dwelling and automobiles. They discovered baggage with tons of of payments, a complete of 68,000 euros, and residence permits for almost a dozen foreigners. In his calls, transcribed within the case, the brokers hear how Rachid lies to a relative of a deceased particular person, telling him that he’s calling from the Algerian consulate in Alicante and that he’ll ship a funeral dwelling to return: his personal, in fact. It’ll value you 6,000 euros. The suspect, who’s now free, already has a lot of felony information, together with being a physician for performing clandestine circumcisions on kids. His lawyer Jorge Novella insists that his consumer has not performed something unlawful, even when there are “conduct or irregularities which can be ethically smart.” He additionally believes that it’s “apparent” that Rachid shouldn’t be the chief of any group.

Rachid was not alone. In line with the directions, he labored intently with the funeral dwelling of Cura Varela in accumulating the useless and distributing eulogies and his identify and exercise had been linked to a funeral dwelling referred to as Internacional La Paz, with workplaces there Almería and Jaén. The proprietor, María José L., was one other a type of who fought to get our bodies from North Africans. It was bought as the most cost effective and quickest, though the directions depart doubts about the way it achieved it. Within the search of his home, a number of clean embalming certificates had been discovered, simple to falsify and essential to take again, already signed by thanatopractors. María José defends her innocence and sees on this case the competitors’s try and cease her enterprise. “I by no means took benefit of households, I swear,” he says.

Dossiers from an NGO with pictures of the deceased

A part of the data that the funeral houses wanted to develop their enterprise got here from Francisco, the volunteer of the NGO, very educated concerning the arrival of boats and the deceased who appeared on the shores. María José and Francisco spoke typically to share that data and that of their households. She didn’t, in precept, pay it, however there have been different funeral houses, like Cura Varela, that did. Within the information of Bizum de Clemente there may be an revenue of 150 euros from an individual in command of this firm, who typically visited the morgues and the administration workplaces seeking shoppers, underneath the idea “fee.” It was solely partially, as a result of the one who was investigated revealed in a name that they nonetheless owed him 700 euros. Francisco calls it “items”, though he additionally acknowledged to the choose that there have been extra funds with different ideas equivalent to “gasoline”. In quest of Francisco’s home NGO information had been discovered with pictures of the deceased, some with notes that learn “awaiting cost” or “paid”, over quantities of 300 euros. In line with what Francisco instructed the choose, these had been funds he obtained from the Cura Varela funeral dwelling for having the ability to get rid of that physique.

The director of the NGO the place Francisco labored, Mari Ángeles Colsa, has not denied that she receives donations for her work, however she refused to obtain “advantages”. In line with Colsa, CIPIMD has by no means accepted cash in change for data. The NGO, which isn’t being investigated as such within the case, is distancing itself from the practices of the remainder of the suspects and Colsa, who his colleague says is the one who obtained the photographs of the useless used once more for pre-identification. them, persevering with to make sure that their NGO by no means shared photographs of our bodies with households or on social networks. The paperwork within the abstract and the networks themselves deny it.

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