Spain Faces Shortage of Muslim Burial Spaces as Demand Grows

Apart from Madrid, Cordoba and Granada where there are fairly well-equipped Muslim cemeteries, very few Spanish cemeteries reserve a place for Muslim burials. Until now, the bodies of the majority of Muslims who died in Spain, mostly Moroccans, have been repatriated to their country of origin. Spaniards converted to Islam, on the other hand, are buried according to the Muslim rite, in the health cemetery of Cordoba and that of Almodóvar del Río.

With the high death rate recorded during this health crisis period, and the closure of borders, there are no places to bury Muslims in Spain. As a result, the Muslim community is forced to look for places everywhere. Thus, reports Pedro Ruiz, the director of the municipal cemetery company in Cordoba, corpses arrived in Cordoba from El Campo de Gibraltar and Castilla La Mancha. About thirty others from Algeciras were buried in Granada, Ceuta and Valencia.

"Cemeteries in Spain are not denominational. We have the right to have a burial in a public cemetery," says for her part Isabel Romero, the president of the Islamic Assembly of Spain, who recalls law 26/92 which recognizes the right of Muslims "to be buried in Spain". According to this law, being registered in a municipality is enough to enjoy this right. "Even undocumented migrants have the right to it. Just having a residence to complete the registration," she adds.