Migrant Disaster Victim Identification

The research team is looking to develop a network, process, policy and digital resource for the identification of deceased people who attempted to cross from the West Coast of Africa to Europe and will pilot this study in the Canary Islands. There are many unidentified/uncollated migrant remains in Canarian cemeteries, dating from the first arrivals from North Africa 24 years ago up to the present day. Any method and database designed for migrant identification needs to be different from current active disaster victim identification procedures due to the challenging nature of identification from poor and war-torn origin countries where personal/biological information may be absent and where relatives do not know whether the missing person is alive or dead. This research will develop a network of key European and African experts and identification agencies in order to co-design a practical methodology for the identification of the deceased from past, present, and future migrant disasters.