Identifying the Displaced: Enhancing the Value of Personal Effects as a Forensic Aide in the Migration Context

Identifying the Displaced is a multidisciplinary exploration into the forensic value of personal effects in the migration context, through close collaboration with international experts in design, forensic anthropology, and forensic pathology. The heart of the project is an online database of more than 500 personal belongings recovered with unidentified migrants who have lost their lives along the ‘River of Death’, a particularly treacherous migratory route separating Turkey and Evros, North Greece.

Partners include: Dr Jan Bikker (The Platform for Transnational Forensic Assistance, Forensic Missing Migrants Initiative; FMMI); Professor Pavlos Pavlidis (Democritus University of Thrace); Mr Harry Lawson (Independent Documentary Filmmaker).

Having been adopted by project partners, the database has thus far contributed to the provisional identification of 5 long-term unidentified missing migrants, recommendations for policy and practice, enhanced opportunities for identification and repatriation, and increased awareness of the increasingly politicised yet simultaneously diminished refugee crisis at large. Additional outputs include a documentary film, showcased internationally at 5 conferences (Brazil, London, Loughborough, Toronto, Vancouver), 5 film screenings (Berlin, Barcelona, Brazil, Vancouver, Macau), 1 journal article, 4 press features, 2 documentaries, 2 podcasts, 1 radio show, 1 magazine article; and major profiles by The New York Times, BBC Radio 4, CRACK Magazine, The Sunday Times, a short film by UK Research and Innovation, and on BBC Crimewatch Live.