Fundació Euroafrica has launched a donation program for the burial and repatriation of Muslim emigrants who died during the coronavirus crisis.
There are seven Muslim corpses awaiting repatriation in Majorca's funeral parlours, but it will cost upwards of 3,000 euros each to send them home.
"The majority of African migrants are Muslim and must be buried according to Islamic tradition, but the Majorca cemetery has no space and the borders are closed,” said Abderrahim Ouadrassi, President of the Foundation.
Expenditure
Six of the dead are from Morocco, one is from Mali and two of them died from coronavirus, but getting them home is very complicated.
“Before the health crisis, they would be sent back to their country of origin by the Muslim community or the Moroccan consulate, but right now nobody knows what to do,” said Ouadrassi. "Border closures mean the corpses would have to travel via third countries in order to reach their destination which makes repatriation significantly more expensive and burial in Mallorca is just not possible because the Palma cemetery is the only one on the island that's adapted for use by the Muslim community and it only has two places."
Most in the Muslim community in Majorca just don't have enough money to repatriate their relatives.
“The women worked as domestic servants and the men were employed in construction or agriculture,” says Ouadrassi, “this situation affects everyone but immigrants have been even more affected.”
Fundació Euroafrica is appealing for donations and points out that although many Muslims do have health insurance, their policies don’t cover repatriation in a pandemic situation.