Migrants and refugees are leaving by the thousands, sailing across the Mediterranean, to Europe on overcrowded boats that are not safe nor sturdy. Over 2000 people this year, however, never made it to their destination. Days, weeks, and even months later their bodies wash up mainly on Libya's western coast, in Zuwara, Khoms and Sabrata where many of their journeys began. The numbers used to be in the dozens but they have since grown significantly to the hundreds. As there isn't a government capable of dealing with these issues, thousands of Libyan Red Crescent volunteers are teaming up with the International Committee of the Red Cross to collect and send the bodies to local hospitals where they attempt to identify them.
Most of the volunteers have no experience in dealing with dead bodies so the ICRC is training them in the handling of human remains. They are also providing them with body bags and personal protection kits. The recently trained volunteers main job is to transfer the bodies to authorities but others have jobs such as assisting those who were rescued at sea and helping thousands of internally displaced Libyans survive. Without the help of the LRCS, the refugees may have had the same fate as those people who washed up on the shore, thinking that they had no other option than to risk their life on one of the boats.
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That's so horrible to hear, especially upon knowing that it is such a heartbreaking issue for those friends and family of the unidentified dead! I'm glad that the Red Crescent volunteers are getting trained on how to preserve the bodies, hopefully it will make the mourning somewhat easier, having the refugees in better condition than they previously were in.
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