Murdered at sea? Dead bodies with hands and feet tied keep washing up near Ibiza

A popular tourist destination in Spain has been rocked by the discovery of five dead bodies with their hands and feet tied in the past month. The gruesome discoveries were made by the Civil Guard in the Balearic Sea near Ibiza, and are believed to be linked to the dangerous migrant crossings. The police have been tight-lipped about the corpses. Reports suggest that the corpses are of migrants trying to enter Spain via a dangerous crossing from Algeria. Dead bodies of migrants regularly wash ashore, but the latest discovery is particularly scary since they were bound and seemingly tortured and murdered.

The discovery of the dead bodies was made in a staggered manner over a month, with the first one washing up on May 18. A private Belgian-flagged vessel sailing in waters west of Formentera spotted it floating in the sea and alerted the authorities. The patrol boat of the Civil Guard Río Segura, based in the Canary Islands, was patrolling the Balearic Islands at the time and reached the site. The crew spotted the lifeless body floating in the sea two hours later. It had an orange life jacket on, and its hands and feet were tied. Civil Guard agents and a forensic doctor examined the body to learn about the man's death.

A few days later, another body tied at the hands and feet was seen floating in the waters of Formentera. It continued for the next few days, adding up the total number of dead bodies to five, all of them in the same condition. The procedure provided for cases of violent deaths has been activated for all cases. They are most likely migrants who were tortured at sea. Investigators think that all of them got into some kind of a scuffle while crossing the ocean, and were handcuffed and thrown into the sea.

There has been a record registration of boats and migrants in the Balearics in recent days. According to data, a total of 2,695 people have reached the area in 130 boats this year. Meanwhile, tourists in the area have been witnessing horrifying scenes as several bodies keep washing up. In one instance, a human leg was discovered in the sea in Can Pastilla in Palma, Majorca. The dead body of a woman with no legs and a skeleton also washed ashore.

The Algeria crossing is particularly life-threatening, but thousands of migrants continue to make the trip, hoping to reach Europe. They live in horrifying conditions and are brutally abused while journeying through the waters. However, since the crossings are illegal, no one ever reports what goes on behind the scenes of the deadly crossings, making investigating these abuses extremely difficult.