Giving a name to people who died in the Mediterranean Sea

Names rather than numbersPosted May 31, 2016

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Giving a name to people who died in the Mediterranean Sea

Within the framework of the FARO project, Terre des Hommes Italy set-up an exemplary partnership with the LABANOF laboratory to support the process of identifying people who died in the Mediterranean Sea. On the 18 April 2015 about 800 refugees lost their live in the Mediterranean, including several children. Around 400 dead bodies, who are not identified yet, are still trapped in the shipwreck on the bottom of the sea.

One year later, the LABANOF team, a group of experts in the field of forensic medicine based inMelilli (Province of Siracusa) started the identification of these people. Terre des Hommes, within the FARO project, supports the operation through donations that will enable the team of LABANOF to make the laboratory analysis of the data collected during the autopsies.

“For us, it is ethically important to name these young victims, but also to reconstruct the tissue between the living and the dead in order to give an answer to those parents who lost their children in the sea and eventually facilitate the reunification of children with still living relatives,“explains Federica Giannotta, head of the Italian projects of Terre des Hommes.

“There are a number of administrative issues for the widows, orphans and parents that remain frozen if there are no documents confirming the death of a relative. Those who have lost a spouse, for example, cannot remarry. While the children who survived a shipwreck but who have lost their parents remain stuck in limbo, unable to be reunited with other living relatives. Not to mention the psychological suffering linked to uncertainty on the fate of their loved ones,” explains Cristina Cattaneo, director of LABANOF.

The EU resorts to the so called EU-Turkey deal to handle the migration crisis. The agreement, which is highly criticised by NGOs and international organisations, aims at stemming the irregular flows of migrants to Europe. The Union states that there is no evidence that new routes are developing directly as a result of the deal. Nevertheless, up to 500 people drowned in April 2016 somewhere between Libya and Italy (among the 41 survivors is only one three-year old child).

Latest data of the UNHCR shows that already 46.714 migrants arrived by sea in Italy in 2016, 7.474 of which are minors. In April, 9,149 migrants arrived in Italy compared to 3,462 people received by Greece. The first time in a year, more refugees are arriving now in Italy than in Greece. Although most of the asylum seekers coming to Italy are from Nigeria, Gambia, Somalia and other Sub-Saharan African nations, it has to be feared that more migrants will risk the perilous journey via the Mediterranean route. Only in 2016, already 2.510 people died or went missing.