Year After Lampedusa Shipwreck, Italian Officials Struggle to Identify Victims

MILAN—When Gergishu Johannes, an Eritrean who has been living in Germany for the past 30 years, heard about the terrible shipwreck off the coast of Lampedusa last year, she felt sure her cousin was among the 360 victims.

Terrified at the thought, she said, she flew to the small Mediterranean island south of Italy. But after 10 days of being bounced from one office to another without news, she went back home to Bonn.

A year later, she was still trying to confirm her cousin’s death.

Only half the people who died when the crowded migrant boat sank have been identified, leaving family members uncertain of their loved ones’ fates.

It is a situation reflected many times over. More than 3,000 people died this year trying to cross the tumultuous sea, up fourfold compared with all of 2013, according to the International Organization for Migration.

The real number is likely far higher, the organization said. Italy has pleaded for helpfrom its European Union partners in handling the huge flow of migrants fleeing war, political strife and poverty in parts of the Middle East and Africa.

A year after the Lampedusa wreck, Italian authorities are being criticized for inaction. The Interior Ministry named a pool of doctors, psychologists and officials to proceed with identification only last month. And there are still many obstacles to putting names to the 180 unidentified bodies buried in Sicilian cemeteries.

“For a year, people haven’t known where to mourn their loved ones,” said Tareke Brhane, president of Comitato Tre Ottobre (Committee Third October), an association representing survivors that has pushed for faster action. “Meanwhile the dead have been lying in coffins with numbers on them.”

At a commemoration Friday attended by European Parliament President Martin Schulz and Federica Mogherini, the EU’s incoming foreign policy chief, protesters shouted “Shame!,” angry at what they see as Italy’s and the EU’s failure to save lives.

It can be difficult to track down family members to identify those who died unless they come forward on their own. In the case of Lampedusa, most of the victims are believed to be from Eritrea, where the regime considers those who flee to be traitors and relatives fear retaliation.

Adding to that, the faces of victims may not be recognizable and more complicated procedures, such as DNA tests, must be used.

“It was very hard to find relatives of the victims willing to come here,” said Vittorio Piscitelli, the head of the authority for missing people. “Plus it took months to analyze the DNA of the victims and collect all the material, so that we had all in place to start the process.”

Mr. Piscitelli said the authorities in Agrigento, a southern Sicilian town in charge of the Lampedusa area, were understaffed and unprepared to deal with the identification of the bodies. Agrigento officials didn’t reply to a request for comment.

The hope for many families to find their loved ones is to have relatives or friends in Europe who can make the trip to Italy and meet with the newly named identification team. When DNA tests are the only viable way to give an identity, the DNA of the bodies needs to be matched with a parent or child of the victim to have more reliable results.

On Wednesday and Thursday, the team met with 19 relatives of presumed victims, who were brought to Rome by the committee from several northern European countries. They identified four corpses matching body marks, teeth structures, photos and personal belongings, said Cristina Cattaneo, a forensics specialist and anthropologist who leads the team.

Ms. Cattaneo said there could be more matches after a closer look at material collected this week, such as photos brought by relatives.

But Ms. Johannes’ situation helps illustrate some of the difficulties. She said she had a feeling her cousin was on the boat, but couldn’t give any specifics.

When the team showed her photos of the bodies found at the shipwreck, she pointed to one of them as being her cousin. Under Italian law, the identification will need to be validated by an judge.

She now wishes to send the body to her relatives in Eritrea. There she can have a funeral and be honored, according to local traditions, she said.

The Lampedusa wreck brought back painful memories of when her brother died in a similar crossing in 2009, she said. “It was very hard. Really hard.”

Write to Giovanni Legorano at giovanni.legorano@wsj.com

The Wall Street Journal