A cross-border team of eight journalists has confirmed the existence of 1,015 unmarked graves of migrants buried in 65 cemeteries over the past decade across Spain, Italy, Greece, Malta, Poland, Lithuania, France, and Croatia. The reporters visited more than half of them.
Unidentified migrants lay to 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.
This months-long investigation underlines that Europe’s migration policies have failed more than a thousand people who have died in transit and the families who survive them.
In 2021, the European Parliament passed a resolution recognsing the need for a “coordinated European approach” for “prompt and effective identification processes” for bodies found on EU borders. Yet in 2022, the Council of Europe called this area a “legislative void”.
These failures mean that the responsibility of memorialising unidentified victims often ends up falling to individual municipalities, cemetery keepers and local good Samaritans, with many victims buried without any attempt at identification.
Proud to have worked on this project with a fantastic group of journalists over the last 9 months.
Even in death, the EU is not respecting the “last rights” of refugees and migrants.
We found over a thousand unmarked migrant graves on Europe’s borders🧵 https://t.co/uSwTXNRYJI pic.twitter.com/GItJZp0g7q
— Eoghan Gilmartin (@EoghanGilmartin) December 8, 2023
In the absence of official data from European and national governments, the Border Graves Investigation collaborated with The Guardian and Suddeutsche Zeitung to count 2,162 unidentified deaths of migrants across eight countries in Europe between 2014 and 2023. The story was initially broken in Unbias the News (five stories: Spain, Italy, Greece, Poland/Lithuania, Croatia/Bosnia/Serbia), Solomon (Greece), l’Espresso (Italy), El Diario (Spain), BalkanInsight (Croatia/Bosnia/Serbia), and Telegram (Croatia).
The cross-border team conducted over 60 interviews in six languages. They 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 revealed the institutional and bureaucratic hurdles of searching for bodies and burying the remains of those that are found. One mother compared her unresolved grief to an “open wound,” and an uncle said it was like “dying every day”.
To understand the complex legal, medical and political landscape of death in each country, the journalists 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.
The in-depth investigation reveals that the European Union is violating migrants’ last rights. The stories below show how.
The team
The Border Graves Investigation team consists of Barbara Matejčić, Daphne Tolis, Danai Maragoudaki, Eoghan Gilmartin, Gabriela Ramirez, Gabriele Cruciata, Leah Pattem, and is coordinated by Tina Xu. The project was supported by the IJ4EU fund and JournalismFund Europe.
Gabriele Cruciata is a Rome-based award-winning journalist specialising in podcasts and investigative and narrative journalism. He also works as a fixer, producer, journalism consultant, and trainer.
- Gabriele Cruciata IG @gab_cruciata
Leah Pattem is a Spain-based journalist and photographer specialising in politics, migration and community stories. Leah is also the founder and editor of the popular local media platform Madrid No Frills.
Eoghan Gilmartin is a Spain-based freelance journalist specialising in news, politics and migration. His work has appeared in Jacobin Magazine, The Guardian, Tribune and Open Democracy.
- X @EoghanGilmartin
- Muck Rack: Eoghan Gilmartin
Gabriela Ramirez is an award-winning multimedia journalist specialising in migration, human rights, ocean conservation, and climate issues, always through a gender-focused lens. Currently serving as the Multimedia & Engagement Editor at Unbias The News.
- X @higabyramirez
- Linkedin Gabriela Ramirez
- Instagram @higabyramirez
Barbara Matejčić is a Croatian award-winning freelance journalist, non-fiction writer and audio producer focused on social affairs and human rights
- Website: http://barbaramatejcic.com/
- FB: https://www.facebook.com/
barbara.matejcic.1 - Instagram: @barbaramatejcic
Danai Maragoudaki is a Greek journalist based in Athens. She works for independent media outlet Solomon and is a member of their investigative team. Her reporting focuses on transparency, finance, and digital threats.
- FB: https://www.facebook.com/
danai.maragoudaki/ - X: @d_maragoudaki
- IG: @danai_maragoudaki
Daphne Tolis is an award-winning documentary producer/filmmaker and multimedia journalist based in Athens. She has produced and hosted timely documentaries for VICE Greece and has directed TV documentaries for the EBU and documentaries for the MSF and IFRC. Since 2014 she has been working as a freelance producer and journalist in Greece for the BBC, Newsnight, VICE News Tonight, ABC News, PBS Newshour, SRF, NPR, Channel 4, The New York Times Magazine, ARTE, DW, ZDF, SVT, VPRO and others. She has reported live for DW News, BBC News, CBC News, ABC Australia, and has been a guest contributor on various BBC radio programs, Times Radio, Morning Ireland, RTE, NPR’s ‘Morning Edition’, and others.
- X: https://twitter.com/daphnetoli
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/
daphne_tolis/?hl=en - Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/daphne-
tolis
Tina Xu is a multimedia journalist and filmmaker working at the intersection of migration, mental health, socially engaged arts and civil society. Her stories often interrogate the three-way street between people, policy and power. She received the Excellence in Environmental Reporting Award from the Society of Publishers in Asia in 2021, was a laureate of the European Press Prize Innovation Award in 2021 and 2022, and was longlisted for the One World Media Refugee Reporting Award in 2023.
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X: @tinayingxuIG: @tinayingxu
See the stories below.