Ln August 9, forty-one people were reported missing off the coast of Lampedusa (Italy). The testimonies of the four survivors allow us to know that the boat left the Tunisian coast with forty-five passengers, including three children. This umpteenth tragedy is added to the long list of tragedies that have occurred at sea in recent years. It comes almost ten years after the shipwreck of October 3, 2013, again off the coast of Lampedusa, one of the greatest maritime tragedies of the 21st century.e century.
On the night of June 13 to 14, the sinking of a boat off the Greek coast led to the disappearance of several hundred people. Due to the lack of refloating of the wreckage and forensic examinations, the identities of the men, women and children missing in this tragedy will not be formally established.
This lack of post-mortem data collection as well as the lack of activation of procedures for collecting ante-mortem data from relatives of the missing raises numerous ethical and legal questions. They in fact hinder the possibility for relatives of the deceased to mourn in the absence of a body, or to initiate the usual administrative procedures in the event of death, procedures which specifically require a death certificate.
During the 2000s and 2010s, anonymous disappearances within and on the outskirts of Europe increased significantly. This phenomenon is closely linked to the increasing danger of cross-border migrations, and in particular crossings by sea. Beyond those missing at sea, whose precise identity often remains unknown, we must recognize the increase in anonymous disappearances on European territory. We are observing the increasing arrival, in our medico-legal services in Paris and Milan, of bodies without any element of identity and for which treatment is not the subject of a protocol. If this protocol exists for disaster victims, it is rarely applied to everyday deaths.
Transform emotion into action
Such a reality is part of a more general context where forensic sciences have made significant progress, particularly with regard to the collection, cross-referencing and archiving of morphological, biometric and genetic data. The implementation of concerted efforts at European level would make it possible to apply the legislative framework which would give these anonymous bodies a chance to one day be identified.
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