Ahmad 
Algerian families were defrauded by an NGO in Spain, demanding money in exchange for information about relatives missing at sea.
Algerian families say they were asked to pay hundreds of euros for information about a migrant relative or acquaintance who went missing at sea and may have been detained or buried in Spain.
The families have been promised details about migrant relatives who went missing at sea, believed to be from an NGO in Spain, according to interviews with Britain’s Guardian newspaper.
The families had searched for relatives for years and needed help to get information about them.
The newspaper highlighted the difficulties faced by families searching for their missing, which may be in the form of bureaucratic obstacles in foreign countries and language barriers, in addition to the lack of central data, for example, to deal with thousands of migrants who are missing or buried in remote places, especially since these burial places sometimes do not bear any distinctive marks.
These difficulties have led to families desperate to get news of their missing persons, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation, asking them for money ranging from 200 to 250 euros to obtain information about the whereabouts of a body, or to obtain a photo of a body in the police morgue.
Last week, at least 20 people were investigated by Spanish authorities on suspicion of defrauding families and relatives of migrants who went missing while trying to cross into Spain.
The charges were related to providing false documents and facilitating the procedures for transporting the bodies of deceased migrants to their home country in exchange for money, and the victims were mainly from Algeria.
The migration route from Algeria to Spain is less known, but it is the deadliest route after the Canary Islands route in the past five years, according to a report by Caminando Frontera.
Migrant boats often depart from the eastern part of Algeria, from the cities of Tipaza, Cherchell and Bejaia and Jijel, disembarking migrants on the coasts of Andalusia, especially on the shores of the Balearic Islands.
According to data from the International Organization for Migration, there are about 23,000 migrants registered as missing in the central Mediterranean.
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