Image 1 of 1
Less

CIPG_20160925_WIRED_BodyIdentification_5M3_9561.jpg

Add to Lightbox Download

PALERMO, ITALY - 25 SEPTEMBER 2016: Simon Robins (42), a researcher with the Mediterranean Missing Project, a one year initiative studying the response to bodies from shipwrecks in Italy and Greece, poses for a portrait in Palermo, Italy, on September 25th 2016.

Following the events of the Arab Spring in 2011, including Gaddafi’s death and Libya’s plunge towards chaos, clandestine crossings skyrocketed, as did the number of people drowning. In 2014 over 170,000 arrived in Italy and since then more than 10,000 perished in the Mediterranean sea.

Only a fraction of these bodies have ever been recovered, and, of the ones that have, the majority remain unidentified. In Sicily alone there are more than 1,500 graves of anonymous refugees and migrants–people from Syria and other war torn countries–who have drowned in shipwrecks at sea.

Despite the decades long persistence of the problem, Italy has yet to develop a comprehensive approach to handling the bodies of shipwreck victims. Many pieces of a functional body identification system are in place, but its overall effectiveness is crippled by a lack of coordination between the various local agencies involved and national authorities.

Copyright
©2016 Gianni Cipriano
Image Size
5336x3557 / 4.6MB
www.giannicipriano.com
Keywords
Contained in galleries
20160921_WIRED_TheMissing_NoFinalPP
PALERMO, ITALY - 25 SEPTEMBER 2016: Simon Robins (42), a researcher with the Mediterranean Missing Project, a one year initiative studying the response to bodies from shipwrecks in Italy and Greece, poses for a portrait in Palermo, Italy, on September 25th 2016.<br /> <br /> Following the events of the Arab Spring in 2011, including Gaddafi’s death and Libya’s plunge towards chaos, clandestine crossings skyrocketed, as did the number of people drowning. In 2014 over 170,000 arrived in Italy and since then more than 10,000 perished in the Mediterranean sea.<br /> <br /> Only a fraction of these bodies have ever been recovered, and, of the ones that have, the majority remain unidentified. In Sicily alone there are more than 1,500 graves of anonymous refugees and migrants–people from Syria and other war torn countries–who have drowned in shipwrecks at sea.<br /> <br /> Despite the decades long persistence of the problem, Italy has yet to develop a comprehensive approach to handling the bodies of shipwreck victims. Many pieces of a functional body identification system are in place, but its overall effectiveness is crippled by a lack of coordination between the various local agencies involved and national authorities.