Research

Introducing the MDVI Automated News Intelligence Tool

Tracking missing migrants, fatalities, and identification efforts across global migration routes presents a massive data challenge. Official mortality reports often suffer from significant reporting delays, and localized tragedies are frequently invisible to international media. To address these gaps, we are launching the Migrant Disaster Victim Identification (MDVI) Automated News Intelligence tool. This system utilizes a structured, multi-stage analytical pipeline designed to systematically extract forensic-relevant indicators from unstructured digital news media. By combining established Information Retrieval (IR) principles with humanitarian crisis monitoring protocols, the tool supports epidemiological and forensic research by tracking migrant deaths and disappearances reported online.

Ongoing Developments

To continuously broaden our digital evidence net, we are currently in the implementation phase of adding historical news archive analysis and social media tracking to our tool. This will allow us to capture an even wider array of localized reports, NGO alerts, and retrospective data that standard search engines may overlook.

Project Impact

This automated approach provides our community with a near-real-time estimation of reported incidents, bypassing the delays of official reporting. Ultimately, this tool helps counter the “invisibility” of migrant tragedies while supporting forensic continuity from the initial media report to potential identification.

Developed by Fevzi Esen

Unnamed: The Phenomenon of Migrant Disaster Victim Identification in Europe

Authors: Veronica Martinez-Garcia, Trine Olsen, Caroline Wilkinson
Funding: Virtual Networking Support Grant, COST Action CA22106 – Migrant Disaster Victim Identification (MDVI)
Collaborators: Contributors and interviewees across multiple European countries and routes (EMR, CMR, WMR, WAAR, Balkans, Channel)
Timeline: November 2024

This review examines MDVI in Europe across three axes—data collection, policy landscape, and operational frameworks—
highlighting gaps in centralized records, fragmented legal responsibilities, and the need for standardized identification procedures
and training. It underscores states’ moral and legal duties to identify the deceased, inform families, and ensure dignified management of remains.

📘 Read the full report (PDF)

TrustAI2: New Challenges in Explainable Artificial Intelligence For Reliable Decision-Making

PI: Sergio Damas, University of Granada
Funding: Spain’s National Research Agency, 2024 Knowledge Generation Call
Collaborators: Spain, France, and the UK
Timeline: 2025

Contactless 3D Post-Mortem Fingerprinting

Researchers: Petra Urbanová (Masaryk University), Frédéric Bezombes (LJMU)
Collaboration: IDLoop and practitioners from South Korea Police
Focus: Validation for post-mortem examination purposes and the development and construction of a novel device suitable for post-mortem data acquisition.
Funding: Unfunded research

Digital Footprints of Migrant Victims on Social Media Platforms

Researchers: Ecenur Aydemir (Hacettepe University, Ankara) and M. Fevzi Esen (University of Health Sciences, Istanbul)

Collaboration with CA24147 – Artificial Intelligence Driven Dental AgEstimation Network (AID-AgE)

3D Data Capture App Development

Researchers: Jessica Liu, Sarah Shrimpton, Frédéric Bezombes (LJMU)

Objective: Development of an app that guides users on how to capture 3D data and videos of faces

Contactless 3D Post-Mortem Fingerprinting (Extended Collaboration)

Researchers: Petra Urbanová and Martin Drahanský (Masaryk University), Frédéric Bezombes (LJMU)

Forensics Applications Repository

Developed by the Department of Anthropology and CoPAS at the Institute of Computer Science, Masaryk University.
This repository provides a set of tools designed for forensics, with a particular emphasis on forensic identification. The goal is to enable easy application of rigorously tested, research-based techniques validated in real-world cases.

🔗 Forensics Applications Website
🔗 CoPAS Platform

Grants Awarded

2023-24

Virtual Networking Grant

Veronica Martínez García – Review of current Migrant Disaster Victim Identification (MDVI) status across European countries and related partner countries – collaboration with Caroline Wilkinson and Trine Olsen

Virtual Mobility

Ferid Azemi – Illegal Immigration in Western Balkans: The process of Victim Identification
Noemi Magugliani – Ethical considerations in MDVI

Short Term Scientific Mission

Ferid Azemi hosted at University of St Kliment, Skopje – The phenomenon of illegal immigration: Challenges of victim identification in Western Balkans
Despoina Flouri hosted at Liverpool John Moores University, UK – The contribution of post-mortem facial depiction in MDVI casework in Crete
Seyithan Demirdağ hosted at Institute of Legal, Political and Sociological Research of the Moldova State Universit – Development of Standards for Identifying Deceased Migrants: A Comparison between Moldova and Türkiye
Nesli Erdogmus hosted at Heraklion University Hospital – Automation of specific sub-tasks in post-mortem CT analysis workflow via deep learning
Fevzi Esen hosted at Max-Planck-Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock – Detection of Digital Traces of Migrant Victims on Social Media Platforms
Dominik Černý hosted at Liverpool John Moores University, UK – Investigating the Prospects of Four-Dimensional Image Acquisition for Automated Face Identification of Migrants

2024-25

Dissemination Conference Grant

Caroline Wilkinson – April 2025, Biometric Institute’s ID@Borders and Future of Travel Conference, Amsterdam – “Migrant DVI challenges”

Virtual Mobility Grant

Ferid Azemi – Advanced methods of identifying migrant disaster victims, and emergency preparedness for disasters