Ellingham Sarah Theresa Dorothea, Perich Pierre, Tidball-Binz Morris
International Committee of the Red Cross, Protection Division, Forensic Unit, 19 Avenue de la Paix, 1202 Geneva, Switzerland.
APHM, CHU Timone, Service de Médicine Légale et droit de la Santé, 13385 Cedex 5, Marseille, France.
Forensic Sci Int. 2017 Oct;279:229-234. doi: 10.1016/j.forsciint.2017.07.039. Epub 2017 Aug 7.
The number of annual maritime fatalities reported in the Mediterranean has more than doubled in the last two years, a phenomenon closely linked to the increase of migrants attempting to reach Europe via the Mediterranean. The majority of victims reportedly never gets recovered, which in part relates to the fact that the mechanisms and interaction of factors affecting marine taphonomy are still largely not understood. These factors include intrinsic factors such as whether the individual was alive or dead at the time of submergence, the individual's stature and clothing, as well as extrinsic factors such including ambient temperature, currents, water depth, salinity and oxygen levels. This paper provides a compilation of the current literature on factors influencing marine taphonomy, recovery and identification procedures for submerged remains, and discusses the implications for the retrieval and identification of maritime mass fatalities as part of the humanitarian response, specifically humanitarian forensic action, to the consequences of the current migration phenomenon.
据报告，地中海地区每年报告的海上死亡人数在过去两年里增加了一倍多，这一现象与试图经地中海抵达欧洲的移民人数增加密切相关。据报道，大多数遇难者的遗体从未被找到，部分原因是影响海洋尸体分解的机制和各种因素之间的相互作用在很大程度上仍不为人所知。这些因素包括内在因素，如个体在溺水时是活着还是已经死亡、个体的身高和衣物，以及外在因素，如环境温度、洋流、水深、盐度和氧气水平。本文汇编了当前关于影响海洋尸体分解的因素、水下遗体的打捞和鉴定程序的文献，并讨论了在人道主义应对措施（特别是人道主义法医行动）中，对当前移民现象造成的后果进行海上大规模死亡事件的打捞和鉴定工作的影响。
