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Migrants from Africa and Mideast who died in Bosnia get marble headstones and a memorial
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A view of the bank of the Drina River near the village of Amajlije, eastern Bosnia, Sunday, Feb. 4, 2024. In several cities along this river between Bosnia and Serbia, simple, durable gravestones now mark the final resting places of dozens of refugees and migrants who drowned in the area while trying to reach Western Europe. - photo by AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic
BIJELJINA, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — In cities along a section of the Drina River, which forms a natural border between Bosnia and Serbia, there are simple, durable gravestones marking the final resting places of dozens of migrants who drowned in recent years trying to reach Western Europe. Their often decomposing bodies were retrieved from the Bosnian side of the river, examined by a forensic pathologist and then buried — unidentified and unclaimed — with no loved ones to mark the passing of their lives. The gravestones recently replaced decaying wooden markers, under which the remains of 41 people from the Middle East, Africa and South Asia seeking a better life in Europe were originally interred.