Start naming shipwreck dead before burial, activists say

(ANSA) - ROME, MAR 1 - The Comitato 3 Ottobre, a non-profit organisation established to raise public awareness and promote solidarity after the 3 October 2013 migrant shipwreck off the Sicilian island of Lampedusa in which 358 people died, on Tuesday called on the head of the Department for civil liberties and immigration, the Special commissioner for missing persons and the Prefect of Crotone to start giving names to the victims of the shipwreck off Steccato di Cutro before they are buried.
    So far 67 refugees and migrants are confirmed dead after a fishing boat that departed from Turkey and thought to be carrying up to 200 people broke up after running aground in rough seas in Italy's southern Calabria region in the early hours of Sunday morning. Around 80 people survived.
    "As has been the case in other tragic shipwrecks, by virtue of the Lampedusa Protocol and thanks to the tireless work of the Labanof Institute (Laboratory of Forensic Anthropology and Odontology) at the University of Milan, the identification of shipwreck victims is possible", the Comitato said.
    "It is imperative that, prior to burial, information be maximized in anticipation of future identification by 'matching' post-mortem and ante-mortem data. In the absence of a specific protocol, we call on all authorities to apply Interpol's DVI (Disaster Victim Identification) protocol providing for photographic surveys, retrieval of clothing and personal effects, and autopsy and odontological examination", the Comitato continued.
    "The families of the dead or missing should also be considered victims of the shipwrecks and should be involved as far as possible by the authorities in the process of identification and burial ," said Tareke Brhane, President of the Comitato 3 Ottobre.
    "We do not want to see these people once again remaining as numbers and nameless victims. This latest tragedy evokes the shipwrecks of 3 and 11 October, which shook the consciences of our continent, exposing the consequences of the absence of real migration policies. Sadly, ten years on people continue to die in the Mediterranean because the choice is still to protect borders, not people." (ANSA).