A network of forensic scientists is working to identify deceased migrants using new technologies and processes to address the growing humanitarian crisis of unidentified bodies.
Several years ago, the remains of a toddler encased in a lifejacket and a navy snowsuit washed up on a beach in southern Norway, having spent the previous two months being carried on North Sea currents. Though his face was barely recognizable, publicity about the sinking of the migrant boat he had been traveling 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.
Only about a fifth of unidentified deceased migrants are ever formally identified. For their relatives, this lack of closure is a continuing trauma. However, a recently established network of forensic scientists is trying to change this, through the development of new technologies and processes to aid identification efforts. The network brings together expertise from across Europe to address what its chair, Prof Caroline Wilkinson of Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU), describes as a growing humanitarian crisis of unidentified deceased migrants in Europe. “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,” said Wilkinson. “Only 25% of those are ever formally identified – and those are just the ones where the bodies are found. There’ll be thousands of other bodies that have never been recovered from those migrant disasters.
Migrant Crisis Identification Forensic Science Deceased Migrants Humanitarian Aid
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