{"id":3357,"date":"2015-08-06T00:29:36","date_gmt":"2015-08-06T00:29:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitederitreamedia.com\/blog12\/?p=3357"},"modified":"2015-08-06T00:29:36","modified_gmt":"2015-08-06T00:29:36","slug":"the-mediterraneans-hidden-body-count","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitederitreamedia.com\/blog12\/2015\/08\/06\/the-mediterraneans-hidden-body-count\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mediterranean\u2019s Hidden Body Count"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Dozens of bodies are are recovered every month\u00a0from beaches all along Libya\u2019s west coast. They are almost invariably migrants who would have died\u00a0on the way to Europe. They are nameless\u00a0and their\u00a0deaths don\u2019t even get reported.<\/p>\n

\"Libya<\/p>\n

Over the past month, Migrant Report<\/em> tracked the number of bodies recovered by\u00a0different branches of the Libyan Red Crescent (LRC), the main organisaiton\u00a0involved in the recovery of these bodies from a 360km stretch of coast between Misurata and the border with Tunisia.<\/p>\n

In July alone, the number stands at about 66. None of these deaths made the news.\u00a0Difficult communication with\u00a0volunteers and other sources scattered across this vast area makes it hard to pin down details, however, the number is a conservative estimate backed up by multiple sources or photographic evidence of\u00a0the recovery.<\/p>\n

The process has become a gruesome routine, says LRC President Maher Daoub.\u00a0\u201cThis is happening on daily basis, we expect it everyday.\u00a0It happens so\u00a0often it has become normal, we are no longer surprised by bodies of migrants washing up,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Recovered<\/a><\/p>\n

Dr. Daoub\u00a0was originally contacted to confirm information that 100 bodies were found along the coast in Tajoura, a port town 10kms west of Tripoli known as a departure point for migrants.<\/p>\n

The LRC\u00a0had no information on this report but could not deny it either. The alert was raised on July 14 by a\u00a0spokesman\u00a0for\u00a0the capital\u2019s anti-immigration department<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He said the bodies were\u00a0believed to be of sub-Saharan migrants. They\u00a0were taken to the morgue at the Tripoli Medical Centre. Officials there also could not confirm the information.<\/p>\n

They asked for an official request for information but no reply was forthcoming at the time of writing. However, a source at the morgue said nobody was keeping track of the dead.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe truth is the centre is swamped, not just with these bodies but with several other problems related to the living. It\u2019s a question of priorities,\u201d the source said.<\/p>\n

According to the latest official July count by the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), 1,900 migrants died in the Mediterranean. But that count only really accounts for the people who die in international waters or are known to the European rescue mission.<\/p>\n

Even the\u00a0UNHCR, which is one of the few international organisations to still have some staff in Libya, could not confirm the incident involving 100 migrants, even though\u00a0it had received the same information.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got the same information but it has been difficult to establish the facts. Most of our staff was transferred to\u00a0Tunis in July of last year (when hostilities broke out in Tripoli between the two political factions that now control the country) and it has been very difficult to monitor the situation,\u201d said\u00a0Leo Dobbs, senior communications officer with the agency.<\/p>\n

\"Libyan<\/p>\n

For those working on the ground, the situation is so chaotic that the notion of having a proper body count just sounds like a fancy idea.<\/p>\n

\u201cRespectfully, I feel that\u00a0your\u00a0question (about these 100 bodies) is an ignorant one, this happens every day in Libya, it\u2019s hard to keep track of the numbers because it is so common,\u201d the LRC President said, frustrated by the little attention his organisation\u2019s work gets.<\/p>\n

The work is grim, as well as relentless. \u201cSome of the bodies we recover are of children and once I saw a dead pregnant woman. I cant bear\u00a0looking at them at times,\u201d said\u00a0Malik Mohamed Marseet, who is\u00a0responsible\u00a0for the Tripoli area.<\/p>\n

The latest recovery on July 26 came after volunteers were alerted to two bodies that had been buried in the sand on a beach in an area known as Al Attaya, in Garabulli, a major sending site for migrants crossing to Europe.<\/p>\n

The corpses were discovered by locals who temporarily buried them in the sand\u00a0before calling the police. They are most likely sub-Saharan Africans but little else is known about them, according to\u00a0Marseet.<\/p>\n

They were recovered together with the local police and sent to\u00a0Tripoli for forensic tests. However, Marseet said they had no apparent signs of violence, when asked whether they could have been killed on the beach by smugglers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s also apparent that the bodies were in the water for\u00a0about a week,\u201d he said. He too expressed frustration at the little support the LRC gets for this work. He said they were dealing with a hidden problem which was actually the tip of the iceberg since many of the people who die at sea do not wash up on the shore.<\/p>\n

\"Libya<\/a><\/p>\n

In fact, the bodies are normally discovered throughout July were all in relatively small groups of between 2 and 11 bodies \u2013 even small dinghies usually carry at least 70 to 100 people.<\/p>\n

One\u00a0of the first groups of bodies recovered in July, is\u00a0believed to have been from a shipwreck off Ben Gardane, a Tunisian fishing town on the\u00a0border with Libya.<\/p>\n

The bodies were found in\u00a0Abu Kammash, a small village 30 km west of the port town and major migration hub of Zuwara.<\/p>\n

A fisherman noticed the bodies in a lagoon\u00a0by the sand. But on the same day, a civil protection source in Tunisia told Reuters that\u00a028 bodies<\/a>\u00a0had been recovered\u00a0from Ben Gardane.<\/p>\n

Sources in Zuwara said the boat is likely to have sunk some three days earlier. The currents took some of the migrants to the Tunisian town while others ended up in Abu Kammash.<\/p>\n

\u201cPossibly the bodies that ended up in Abu Kammash were those of people who died first, we suspect they originally left from the Zuwara area and then the current took the bodies to Tunisia,\u201d a coastguard source in Zuwara said.<\/p>\n

The amount of bodies washed on Libyan shores\u00a0poses practical challenges to the organisations taking charge of their recovery.<\/p>\n

A spokesman for Tripoli\u2019s\u00a0anti immigration department said when hospital morgues are overwhelmed, the bodies are buried on the beaches where they are found.<\/p>\n

Dr. Daoub said the LRC tries its best to give the migrants a proper burial but it is not always possible.\u00a0\u201cMost hospitals in different cities\u00a0have been receiving large numbers of dead bodies over the past years and are overwhelmed. Moreover, some of the migrants are Christian and there is a shortage of appropriate burial sites for them,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The LRC has fundraised and built a cemetery for Christians in Tripoli. Sometimes, the religion is assumed based on the estimated nationality of the recovered migrants but in some cases, the bodies would have crosses or other religious ornaments indicating the faith of the deceased.<\/p>\n

Posted on August 3, 2015 <\/span>by Mark Micallef and Zizi Agabani<\/a> <\/span>in Spotlight<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dozens of bodies are are recovered every month\u00a0from beaches all along Libya\u2019s west coast. They are almost invariably migrants who would have died\u00a0on the way to Europe. They are nameless\u00a0and their\u00a0deaths don\u2019t even get reported. Over the past month, Migrant Report tracked the number of bodies recovered by\u00a0different branches of the Libyan Red Crescent (LRC), […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_ml_titleColor":"#000000","_ml_titleFont":"Roboto","_ml_titleFontSize":1.1359999999999998987476601541857235133647918701171875,"_ml_titleFontWeight":"400","_ml_titleLineHeight":1.3000000000000000444089209850062616169452667236328125,"_ml_metaColor":"#708090","_ml_metaFont":"Montserrat","_ml_metaFontSize":0.67849999999999999200639422269887290894985198974609375,"_ml_metaFontWeight":"400","_ml_metaLineHeight":0.92000000000000003996802888650563545525074005126953125,"_ml_bodyColor":"#a9a9a9","_ml_bodyFont":"Open Sans","_ml_bodyFontSize":0.84999999999999997779553950749686919152736663818359375,"_ml_bodyFontWeight":"400","_ml_bodyLineHeight":1.1999999999999999555910790149937383830547332763671875,"_ml_wooPriceColor":"#666","_ml_wooPriceFont":"Open Sans","_ml_wooPriceFontSize":0.90000000000000002220446049250313080847263336181640625,"_ml_wooPriceFontWeight":"400","_ml_wooPriceLineHeight":1.270000000000000017763568394002504646778106689453125,"_ml_headingColor":"#000","_ml_headingFont":"Merriweather","_ml_headingFontSize":2.020000000000000017763568394002504646778106689453125,"_ml_headingFontWeight":"700","_ml_headingLineHeight":1.4699999999999999733546474089962430298328399658203125,"_mlglobal_userfontcolors":{"headingColorUser":[],"titleColorUser":[],"metaColorUser":[],"bodyColorUser":[],"wooPriceColorUser":[]},"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Mediterranean\u2019s Hidden Body Count - UNITED ERITREA MEDIA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Mediterranean\u2019s Hidden Body Count - UNITED ERITREA MEDIA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dozens of bodies are are recovered every month\u00a0from beaches all along Libya\u2019s west coast. 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