Sixteen people died and were registered as unidentified during the last five years in Malta, according to the health ministry. Six of them were identified at a later stage, while the other 10 remain unidentified.
The unidentified cadavers, labelled ‘Mr X’, are usually found out at sea or in an advanced stage of decomposition. They are registered as unidentified after no family members come forward to identify the corpse and after forensic and DNA examinations fail to identify the individual.
A spokesperson for the health ministry said three unidentified corpses were registered in each of 2017, 2018 and 2020, two in 2019, and five last year.
Bodies that remain unidentified are given a burial by the state following a modest and simple funeral ceremony, but DNA samples are stored after burial to retain the possibility of future identification.
“In these circumstances the cadaver is given a unique body number and a forensic examination takes place,” the health ministry said.
Unidentified people are not the only ones to be given a pauper’s burial.
So are cadavers that remain unclaimed and others whose families cannot afford a funeral.
Unclaimed cadavers are the result of the deceased having no family or in some cases, no relatives bother to show up to organise a funeral. In such situations the government publishes notices in the Government Gazette in the hope that a next of kin comes forward.
The process may take months, and the body is given a government burial if the notices fail to bring forward any family members.
Other cadavers are identified, and relatives do come forward, but they claim they don’t have the financial resources to pay for a funeral. In that case the state steps in to organise a pauper’s burial.
In December last year, a 39-year-old Somali man died while working at a Marsa factory. Ahmed Adawe Diriye was initially registered as unidentified, until nurses at the hospital recognised him from a photo of a missing man disseminated by the police.
The majority of unidentified cadavers are not of Maltese people.