A week after 14 people were detained by the Spanish Guardia Civil in the Andalusian cities of Almería, Murcia and Jaén, in the south of the country, accused of exploiting families of missing North African immigrants, the British newspaper The Guardian spoke to three families who say they were asked to pay 200 euros with the promise that they would receive information about the whereabouts of their family members. “One person said they had been promised photographs of their family member’s body in a police morgue”writes the newspaper this Tuesday.
Interviewed by Guardianconfess that they did not pay the requested amount, but believed that the people they spoke to were linked to a non-governmental organization in Spain and that they said they could help them.
The network operated using fake profiles on social media to establish first contact with families and later “offered them false information about the whereabouts of their loved ones in exchange for money”declared the Spanish police in a statement. “For years, the network has profited from the families, in Morocco and Algeria, of those who had disappeared and died at sea when trying to reach the Spanish coast in small boats”he added.
The Spanish Guardia Civil explained that it began the investigation after discovering the publication on social media of several photographs of migrants’ bodies taken in the morgue.
The suspects arrestedincluding several public servants who worked in forensic institutes in southern Spain, are accused of various crimes, including fraud, bribery, falsification of public documents and disrespect for the deceasedthe police reported.
Tags: search answers Families missing migrants exploited criminal network
