About
Project Context
We all have the right to a name, yet the fragmented identities of missing and unidentified migrants lay tragically scattered along many European coastlines. Many people on the move who die in the Evros region of Greece remain unidentified: of the 550 deaths in the area since 2002, over 60% are still nameless, with no means through which to tell their story.
Devastatingly, human remains are often decomposed, making visual recognition extremely difficult. DNA is often required to establish identity beyond reasonable doubt, however many families may not know the trajectory of their loved one’s journey, or who to contact for information. Both decomposition and lack of ante-mortem data for comparison can hamper identification efforts – especially across borders – limiting opportunities to reunite families and missing loved ones.
The Power of Personal Effects
Personal belongings such as jewellery, watches, glasses, and photographs are often recovered with people on the move – personal treasures or protective talisman for the journey ahead. Whilst not sufficient on their own in identifying the deceased, these ‘secondary’ methods often serve to support identification via ‘primary’ means, such as DNA, fingerprinting, or dental records. Personal effects can offer a range of investigative clues as to an individual’s identity: a secret ‘history’ of their migratory journey or origin of travel. The often unique or sentimental nature of many items means they may also be recognised by families, representing the last tangible link to a missing loved one.
Whilst in many parts of the world it is relatively common practice to attempt to build a profile using secondary identifiers, little awareness exists within Mediterranean contexts as to their forensic, evidential, or sentimental value. Furthermore, many objects are interchangeable between persons in a group; often gifted, stolen, or traded – particularly in the migration context . Thus, the limitations of personal effects in the identification process must also be considered.
Our Database
Told through the objects carried with individuals on their journey, the heart of Identifying the Displaced is a database of more than 390 personal belongings which currently reside in the Mortuary at The General University Hospital of Alexandroupolis. Attributed to the identities of more than 100 identified and unidentified migrants, each case study is accompanied by a unique first-person narrative: an attempt to humanise every individual story and personal journey by gifting individuals with the ability to ‘speak’ once more, bringing visibility to hundreds of identities otherwise erased.
The first initiative of its kind dedicated to missing migrants in Europe, the Database represents a unique attempt to bring this largely invisible and otherwise site-specific collection to a wider audience, generating new insight surrounding both objects and owner(s). It provides a unique opportunity to bring together international experts and migrant communities to offer analyses from a wide range of disciplines and perspectives, contributing insight towards investigative leads as well as other considerations in the use of such items for forensic identification in the migration context.
Our Approach
Combining interdisciplinary methods across the arts and humanities, social sciences, life sciences, and design; hundreds of police files, autopsy reports, and post-mortem images have been digitised, analysed, and combined with object biographies, social media analyses, digital photography, and documentary film. Work has thus far focused on uncovering identifying marks and personal features such as engravings, inscriptions, and serial numbers found on jewellery, watches, and electronics; in addition to noting indicators of culture, religion, or provenance; and how, when, and where each item was recovered.
The project will engage with charities, rescuers, investigation authorities, academics, translators, non-government organisations, migrant communities, and families of the missing to enhance opportunities for identification. Knowledge exchange workshops will bring together practitioners and organisations active on the issue of migration, in addition to relevant subjects as such jewellery appraisal, design, art history, forensic science, forensic pathology and human rights, to discuss and advise upon aspects such as procedure, law, ethics, provenance, cultural or religious indicators, and repatriation.
It is hoped that acquired expertise from the project will enhance opportunities for human identification and further aid capacity-building in countries where expertise on the topic is limited, assisting towards a methodology to help police and pathologists in Greece utilise personal effects within the migration context.