Migrant bodies with hands and feet tied found in sea after 'death ritual'

Five men found in the sea off Majorcawith their hands and feet bound up with rags died after starving, drinking their own urine and sea water, distraught relatives have revealed.

As suspected, the bodies were those of African migrantswho had tried to get to the Spanish holiday island to start a new life in Europe. There was shock and horror when the five corpses were discovered in the ocean off the Balearics and it was thought they had been murdered on the crossing and then thrown into the water with their feet and hands tied.

But their families have now revealed they were bound because of a death ritual after they died of starvation on the two week hazardous journey.

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And they confirmed that they were so hungry and thirsty that they had to resort to drinking their own urine and fatally, sea water. They also ate just one date a day.

Dramatic pictures and a shocking video have been published by Spanish newspaper Diario de Ibiza showing the migrants packed into the tiny boat on the choppy ocean. At one stage, their distress is evident as they wave orange sticks to try and attract passing boats.

Their tiny boat had left Algeria and was adrift for two weeks as the engine had broke down during the second day of the crossing. After receiving the survivors, who were between 15 and 27 years old, the Red Cross found that most of them had very acute symptoms of dehydration, wounds and infectious symptoms.

They had fed themselves with a date a day and most ended up drinking their own urine to survive, since they consumed all the milk and fresh water they had on them.

"One of the people had eaten toothpaste because he did not have anything else and did not want to let go of the bottle when he arrived here," the Red Cross explained to the Alicante newspaper Información.

All the migrants were Somalis, except for the two alleged skippers, who are Nigerian nationals. One of them died during the crossing and the other was arrested by the National Police. He is accused of crimes of organising illegal immigration, reckless homicide, injuries and membership of a criminal organisation.

Doctors said those who chose to ingest seawater ended up dying. In addition, the information provided by the Red Cross to the authorities regarding the causes of death of the body that was in the boat also eliminates any theory of a violent death.

The fundamental cause of death are understood to have been hypoglycemia, ketoacidosis and metabolic syndrome. Hypoglycemia occurs when glucose levels, the body's main source of energy in the blood, fall below what is healthy for the body.

On May 18, 10 days after the boat was rescued near Alicante, a handcuffed body washed up on the coast of Formentera. Over the next few weeks, the trickle of corpses continued to total five. They were all wearing orange vests and were tied hand and foot.

The brother of one of the survivors of the crossing said that in Islamic tradition, it is customary in Somalia to wrap the body, tie their legs and bend their hands so that they hold each other. The migrants did not have the means to wrap the bodies but they were able to perform these ties, like funeral rites, before throwing the bodies overboard.