Spain Delays Repatriation of Moroccan Worker’s Body, Demands Further Tests

The young man’s family has already appealed to the Spanish court three times to order the repatriation of his body. Without success. The Moroccan police even confirmed Taofik’s identity to the Spanish judicial police in November, after conducting a DNA test with the collaboration of his family members. But this did not reassure the Spanish authorities, who are demanding additional and more thorough tests, Publico reported.

Taofik, 23, was a victim of the fires that devastated the shantytowns inhabited by the seasonal workers who participate in the strawberry harvest in the province of Huelva. More than two years after his death, his cousins living in Mazagón, a coastal town of Palos, continue to plead for the repatriation of his body before the court of first instance of Moguer. Taofik’s body is being held in Huelva, under the control of the Andalusia Council’s Forensic Institute, pending the court’s decision.

Since Taofik was completely burned in the fire, an initial DNA test carried out by comparing his with that of one of his cousins was inconclusive, which had led the Spanish court to request through Interpol in 2020 a new DNA test with Taofik’s closer relatives in Morocco.

Three months after this request, Morocco denounced a procedural defect and demanded that it be formulated through an international letter of request. But a year and a half later, the judge in charge of the case at the Moguer court was informed by the Spanish judicial police that Morocco had confirmed Taofik’s identity after conducting a DNA test with the deceased’s immediate family living in Moulay Bousselham, near Larache. Despite this, the judicial police continue to demand detailed expert reports proving the identity of the deceased, citing a "lack of supporting documents".

Taofik’s family is desperate. They do not understand the reason for this "delay". All they want is for the young man’s body to be returned to them so that they can bury him with dignity in Morocco. "The family’s rights to dispose of the body are being violated due to the inability of the system to provide a response within a reasonable time," Pepa Suárez, the head of a human rights defense association in Huelva, denounced.