“Several passports were recovered at the scene which appear to be from the Republic of Mali,” superintendent Junior Simmons said in a video message.

“The remains were in an advanced state of decomposition, and some were not fully intact.”

Local police received on Monday morning around 1045am a report about the 45-foot vessel that washed ashore in Little Bay on Canouan, to the south of the archipelago Caribbean nation.

Simmons said the remains had been transported to mainland St Vincent pending further forensic and investigative procedures.

In nearby St Kitts and Nevis, authorities in January said they had discovered a vessel where they found the bodies of 19 people who they estimated had been at sea for a long period due to the advanced stage of decomposition.

They also found identifications suggesting some of those passengers also came from Mali, a landlocked West African nation some 6,200km east across the Atlantic Ocean.

The Atlantic Ocean off the West African coast is among the world’s most dangerous maritime routes, with strong westerly currents and winds capable of driving vessels far off course.