SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, 21 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Prosecutor’s Office of the Provincial Court of Santa Cruz de Tenerife requests a sentence of six years and nine months in prison for each of the eight skippers of a canoe that left Mauritania with 105 people and was rescued by Maritime Salvage in waters near Tenerife .
According to the Prosecutor’s brief, collected by Europa Press, the defendants, who are in preventive detention, were in charge of directing the boat, distributing water and food on board and threatening the occupants with death if they did not comply with their orders.
The Prosecutor’s Office points out that people were traveling “overcrowded” with a risk to their health by not wearing a mask or keeping a safe distance, as required by the health pandemic at that time, and each migrant was charged about 600 euros for the trip.
The boat, about 20 meters long, was “absolutely unsuitable” for the trip since it was small and the lives and integrity of the occupants were put at risk since it did not have security or stability measures to deal with the conditions of a voyage on the high seas.
For example, the Prosecutor’s Office points out, there were no life jackets, tools to repair breakdowns, positioning lights to mark the location of the boat, communication instruments in case of emergency or means to protect themselves from the sun, wind or rain.
In addition, there was little food and drink, and given the precariousness of the boat, it became adrift until the migrants were rescued on the high seas by a Maritime Rescue boat and transferred to port.
As a consequence of the harshness of the journey, one of the migrants suffered from baseline pneumonia, a pressure ulcer, dehydration, multiple abrasions, soft tissue infection, and anemia, for which he required hospitalization.
The trial starts next Tuesday at 09:30 in the sixth section of the Provincial Court.
