TORONTO -- Fifty-five victims of Hurricane Dorian were laid to rest in unmarked graves in the Bahamas Friday, as family members marked their grief with protest over the handling of the bodies.
For nine months, the bodies of missing people recovered in the aftermath of the devastating storm were stacked in a refrigerated trailer, unidentified, while relatives of the missing begged to bury their loved ones they believed were inside.
鈥淚 mean it鈥檚 good and all that we finally get these bodies out the trailer, but I see no dignity here,鈥� Miriam Taylor told the .
鈥淭his was a sub-third world exercise. I saw so many crying, not just because they lost their loves ones, but because they have no idea who is who in these coffins.鈥�
As of November last year, 282 people will still considered missing with the official death toll at 70. However, government officials have been notoriously vague about how many people were considered missing after the storm, often refusing to comment on the official number.
The government says it has kept DNA samples from the bodies in case they can be matched in the future. But residents say that may be unlikely for the many illegal immigrants who died in shanty towns, many of which now sit abandoned, strewn with flattened homes and debris.
Few could attend the public funeral that took place Friday thanks to short notice and physical distancing measures due to the COVID-19 pandemic.鈥�
