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Every year thousands of migrants die during the endeavour to reach the Italian coasts, making the Mediterranean the theatre of one of the greatest tragedies of mankind. Over 60% of these victims is buried unidentified: one of the reasons behind this is related to the specific difficulties and lack of strategies concerning AM and PM data collection. The present article describes how Italy is trying to face the problem of migrant identification, thanks to the collaboration between government, the Italian national police and universities. In particular, this is the first pilot study carried out to identify the victims of the second greatest tragedy of its kind off the Italian coast, near Lampedusa, on October 3rd 2013, which caused 366 victims. The present article shows the strategies conceived to collect postmortem and especially antemortem data and to compare them to identify matches, using medicolegal, anthropological, odontological and genetic approaches. Thirty-one victims out of 53 missing sought by relatives were identified (58.5%). The type and the quality of antemortem data available, generally photos and videos, pinpoints the importance of the face and the body for identification when the bodies are well preserved and how DNA analyses may at times present difficulties. In fact, critical points emerged concerning especially the lack of genetic information of the populations to which the victims belonged, the number of genetic markers needed to reach a statistical support for the identification and the need to adopt lineage markers such as mitochondrial DNA and Y-chromosome polymorphisms to identify parental relationships. This pilot study however has proven that families continue to seek their relatives and that it is possible, as well as mandatory, to identify migrant victims in spite of the difficulties in the collection of antemortem and postmortem data. In addition, considering the peculiar scenario, novel strategies for positive identification have to be defined in each field (anthropological, odontological and genetic) as well as in combination.

On October 3rd, 2013 a boat carrying more than 500 migrants coming mostly from the Horn of Africa (Eritrea, Somalia, Ethiopia) sank near Lampedusa, a small Italian Island in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. The recovered bodies were examined by a forensic team, and post mortem data (anthropological and odontological records, and DNA) were collected for identification. Genetic profiles based on 16 autosomal STRs were acquired from both victims and putative relatives recruited following an international call. The final genetic database included 363 victims and 43 reference persons from 36 independent families recruited until mid-2017, who were missing 35 first-degree and 6 second-degree relatives. A pairwise blind search approach was used to identify familial relationships within the victims and between victims and putative relatives. Two statistics were calculated, the Identity by State (IBS) and the Identity by Descent (IBD), the latter by using the DVI module of the FAMILIAS3 software to compute LRs and posterior probabilities. The putative identifications were confirmed in pedigree analysis using the information provided by the relatives. In selected cases, additional autosomal and lineage (Y-chromosome and mtDNA) markers were typed. Some critical points were highlighted: the lack for accurate allele and haplotype frequencies in African populations, especially for the lineage markers, and the need for a shared approach to the biostatistical interpretation of the results in DVI. In the end, 29 first-degree (parent-child and full sibs) out of 35 missing (83%), and 3 out of 6 of second-degree relatives (50%) showed a high statistical confidence for a positive identification. This study represents the first attempt to systematically deal with the genetic identification of African migrants who died in the Mediterranean Sea. The methodological and statistical approach used in this study was proved to be reliable and appropriate for future genetic identifications in other similar mass disasters.

In the last years, the migration flow across the Mediterranean Sea increased rapidly. More than 20,000 persons, included young men, women and children, died trying to reach the European coasts, 60% of which remained with no identity. In this scenario, forensic genetics can give a support to the positive identification of the victims. To this aim, the DNA extracted from the victims is analysed and compared to reference samples supplied by relatives, in order to find out familiar relationships. In collaboration with LABANOF, University of Milan, our laboratory is trying to set up a genetic and statistic approach suitable for victim identification of the migrants died during the shipwreck occurred near the Lampedusa island, in October 3rd, 2013. The genetic profiles of the 363 victims, collected by the Forensic Genetics Lab of the Scientific Police Service (Palermo, Italy), were initially compared among them and subsequently between victims and subsequently with the reference samples, using the software Familias3, setting up the DVI interface. The statistical approach identified four familiar groups among the victims, generally composed by a parent with two or more children, and five parent-child relationships. In addition, 20 matches were detected between the subjects seeking a relative and 17 victims, with a positive statistical support. Some critical points emerged during the analyses among which the most important were the number of relatives and genetic markers needed to reach a statistical support to identification, the lack of genetic information about the populations to which the victims belonged and the option to use lineage markers such as Y-chromosome and mtDNA polymorphisms. In conclusion, these results support the reliability of the approach and highlight the importance to collaborate with other forensic experts in order to achieve positive identifications of the bodies.