That's according to Attorney General, Dale Marshall, who says the local forensic team is still harvesting DNA to assist the international experts in trying to positively identify the bodies. He says the bodies are to be moved to government's forensic sciences lab in the meantime, where Interpol investigators can do their work.

But Marshall says no relatives of the deceased have come forward. "You must bear in mind that the issue here is that we've not been able to identify the deceased individuals yet. At this point in time, they're still being described as John Doe A, B, C, D, etcetera, so the question of individuals coming forward to claim a specific deceased's remains, I don't think we're at that stage yet," he said.

"The whole issue here is that we want to harvest enough data so as to be able to allow for an accurate identification of the deceased persons at some point in time in the future, even after the bodies have been buried."

Marshall had previously indicated that it is costing government $500 a day storing the bodies.

The authorities believe they were part of an original group of 52 who set out from Senegal last December to travel to the Canary Islands - a gateway into mainland Europe.