An evaluation of forensic casework in Greece: the impact of migration on the medicolegal system and a call for systematic decedent accounting for case resolution

This paper uses retrospective case data from across three forensic services in Greece to evaluate the process of identification for unidentified human remains recovered within Greece. The cases included in this study (N = 592) cover the majority of forensic anthropology cases for the country and all unidentified forensic pathology cases for the island of Crete. The retrospective analysis shows that the demographic data between migrants and non-migrants in the dataset are distinct and that in addition to migrant countries, the Greek medicolegal authorities deal with identifications across many continents due to high levels of tourism. The data also show that there is a large impact on the forensic services when migrant shipwrecks occur within the jurisdiction of these services. The absence of migrant decedent data in this data set compared to expected numbers shows a gap in accounting of migrant remains within the seas surrounding Greece. The data also shows that case resolution for unidentified human remains found within Greece is complicated by a lack of interagency collaboration and infrastructure despite current improvements to the medicolegal capacity of the country.