On 13-17 November 2023 in Milan, Italy, the EU and Swiss co-funded Libya’s Migration Technical Assistance Facility (LIBMITAF) project organised a training for Libyan representatives on the topic of “Forensics and Identifying Deceased Persons”, including missing migrants and internally displaced persons.
What are the scientific practices and tools employed to identify a deceased person, and how are these tools utilised to uphold human rights and the dignity of the deceased in migration and displacement contexts? These were some of the questions addressed in the training course organised at the Anthropological and Odontological Lab of the State University of Milan (LABANOF) for 14 representatives from the Libyan General Authority for the Search and Identification of Missing Persons and the Ministry of Interior.
The training course equipped the participants with practical skills to identify deceased individuals through the theoretical and practical analyses of challenging case studies, such as the aftermath of explosions, shipwrecks, or natural disasters. The participants from diverse backgrounds (forensic medicine, odontology, archaeology, genetics) learned how forensic techniques allow for victim identification in humanitarian contexts and how this contributes to upholding the human rights of the deceased and family members. The training was complemented by a visit of the University Museum of Anthropological, Medical and Forensic Sciences for Human Rights (MUSA), whose mission is to disseminate the role of medical, anthropological, and forensic sciences in protecting human rights.
The “Libya’s Migration Technical Assistance Facility ” (LIBMITAF) project is co-funded by the European Union and the Swiss Confederation (represented by the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM)).