The Border Graves Investigation

The journalists were able to have visited over 500 graves in which people who died deprived of dignity now lie without names. 

Unidentified migrants rest in cemeteries in olive groves, on hilltops, in dense forests, and along remote highways. Each unmarked grave represents a person who lost their life en route to Europe, and a fate that will remain forever unknown to their loved ones. 

In 2021, the European Parliament passed a resolution recognising the need for a “coordinated European approach” for “prompt and effective identification processes” for bodies found on EU borders. Yet the Council of Europe calls it a “legislative void.”

These failures mean that the responsibility of memorialising unidentified victims often ends up falling to individual municipalities, cemetery keepers and even good-willed residents, with many victims being buried without an attempt at identification.

The team conducted over 60 interviews in six languages. We spoke with families of the missing and deceased, whose loved ones left for Europe from Syria, Afghanistan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Iraqi Kurdistan, Algeria, and Sri Lanka. They spoke about the institutional and bureaucratic hurdles of searching for, and if found, burying a body. One mother compared the unresolved grief to an “open wound,” and an uncle said it was like “dying every day.”

In order to understand the complex legal, medical, and political landscape of death in each country, we spoke with coroners, grave keepers, forensic doctors, international and local humanitarian groups, government officials, a European MEP, and the Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner. 

This in-depth investigation reveals that the European Union is violating migrants’ last rights.

Photo credit: Siće graves in Croatia, Tina Xu

AWARDS

This project received the the Special award for excellent journalism which defies categories and disciplines during the European Press Prize 2024 ceremony in Prague.

Nominated for IJ4EU 2024 Impact award.