Four years ago, the remains of a toddler encased in a lifejacket and a navy snowsuit washed up on a beach in southern Norway. Though his face was barely recognisable, publicity about the sinking of the migrant boat he had been travelling on, and suspicions about his identity, enabled Norwegian police to locate a relative to whom his DNA could be matched, providing this lonely corpse with a name: Artin Iran Nezhad.
It is thought that at least 25,000 people have died in the last 10 years crossing the Mediterranean alone, and that's not even accounting for those who die on land and other routes. Only 25% of those are ever formally identified and those are just the ones where the bodies are found.
Migrants face many dangers during their journeys, not only adventurous waters but also the lack of recovery solutions for those who have perished. The establishment of MDVI Action seeks to tackle the humanitarian crisis of unidentified deceased migrants in Europe.
Wilkinson emphasized that thousands of other bodies will likely never be recovered from migrant disasters, highlighting the importance of identifying those lost and providing closure to their grieving families.
#migrant-crisis #victim-identification #humanitarian-efforts #forensic-science #mediterranean-migration
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