Migrant deaths and the Kater Radez I wreck: from recovery of the relict to marine taphonomic findings and identification of the victims

On March 1997, during a naval blockade imposedby Italy to prevent illegal immigration, the motorboat KaterRadez I full of Albanian refugees clashed with an Italianwarship with 120 people approximately on board. The boatsank quickly after the collision just in the middle of theOtranto Canal (Mediterranean Sea). Only 34 individuals survivedthe accident; 58 died, mostly women and children, anddozens were missing. After 7 months spent at depth of 800 mapproximately underwater to constant temperature of 4 °C, themotorboat was rescued, and totally, 52 bodies were recoveredfrom the holds. The management of the mass disaster issummarized focusing on the procedures applied in the recoveryof the boat and victims, and the identification process. Thepurpose of the article is to present the unique taphonomicmodel of decomposition dealing with marine sequesteredenvironments. The postmortem changes have been revisedaccording with a skeletonization scoring system. Surprisingly,most of the victims were in good condition with soft tissuesstill present except at the head/neck region and the handsresulting in the body parts mostly pre-skeletonized. Closedcompartments as well as heavy clothing in multiple layersprotected the bodies from animal activity of marine scavengers.Presumptive positive identification was obtained in49 out of 52 bodies based on the correspondence betweenante- and postmortem data. An additional purpose of thearticle is also to focus on the practice of coercive actionsdisproportionate to the risk of unauthorized entry criticizedby several international organizations for migration and recentlycondemned by the European Court in Strasbourg.