Authorities next to boat containing 14 deceased people which was found off Dominican Republic

A vessel of unknown origin and manufacture was found earlier this week off the coast of Río San Juan. The boat contained 14 skeletons, according to the Navy of the Dominican Republic. In a statement the navy says that identities of Senegalese and Mauritanian origin were found onboard, as well as a backpack containing 12 packages of a substance presumed to be cocaine or heroin.

Packets of drugs - thought to be cocaine or heroin - stacked on sand after boat found with 14 deceased

The seized substance was delivered to members of the National Drug Control Directorate and an investigation is underway to determine the causes and origin of this maritime tragedy.

Forensic authorities in the Dominican Republic are working to identify the remains.

The Atlantic route from West Africa to the EU is one of the most dangerous in the world, according to CBS. Boats that miss their destination can be swept away by Atlantic trade winds and currents from east to west, drifting for months. Migrants aboard often die of dehydration and malnutrition. This is widely suspected to be what happened in this case. It is not uncommon. Last year the Associated Press calculated that in 2021, at least seven boats from northwest Africa had been found in the Caribbean and Brazil, all carrying dead bodies.

Local media Diario Libre agrees that this isn’t unusual and goes onto ask: Who knows how many boats full of Africans are floating around the Atlantic right now? Who knows which ones are carrying corpses and which ones have men and women dying of hunger inside? The Atlantic is not kind to sailors, much less when they are in rickety boats.

The boat was found on 6 August, ten nautical miles from Río San Juan. Fisherman Luis Alberto Polanco and his son were the ones who made the discovery.

“When I saw the boat from a distance, I stood looking and there were no people. That boat there looked strange. We said: ‘Let’s go over there’,” the fisherman told media.

Polanco says it was a different vessel from those seen on the Dominican coast. “The boat didn’t have the engine in the stern, it was sort of in the middle, in a hole,” he says.

IDs and phones laid out on beach after boat containing 14 skeletons washes up in Dominican Republic

Boubacar Seye, president of the NGO Horizons Sans Frontières, says that the 14 people found in Rio San Juan left Mauritania between January 22 and 23. Seye told Diario Libre that the ID cards, which were shown on TV were recognised by some family members.

In 2020, the headless body of Chinese ocean rower was found. The body found on the coastline of Kinapusan Island, Tawi-Tawi, Philippines, near a wrecked boat was identified as Ruihan Yu , who set out to solo row the Pacific Ocean. This had been Yu’s second attempt at a solo crossing. In 2017, he was rowing from California to Australia, but he had to be rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard off the coat of Hawaii after a damaged rudder. He set off again in 2019.

All images courtesy of Navy of the Dominican Republic.

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