9 corpses found adrift in boat off Brazil were likely migrants from Mauritania and Mali, police say

By RENATA BRITO
Associated Press

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Brazilian police investigating the discovery of a boat full of corpses say the dead were likely African migrants from Mali and Mauritania. Fishermen off Brazil’s northern coastal state of Pará had found the boat adrift Saturday in the Atlantic ocean. Brazil’s Federal police said in a statement late Monday it had recovered nine dead. The large white and blue canoe-shaped boat found in Brazil shares the same characteristics of Mauritanian fishing pirogues frequently used by West African migrants to reach Spain’s Canary Islands. Brazil was likely not their destination.