There is nothing to indicate that this is a cemetery, where hundreds of people have been buried after drowning while attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea from Libya to Italy. One of the latest victims, an African woman in her 30s, was found on the beach in Zarzis without any documents after floating in the sea for about a month.
More than 4,400 people have died or gone missing this year while trying to make the deadly crossing, according to the International Organization for Migration's Missing Migrants Project. Most bodies are never found, but the largest number wash ashore in Libya or Italy and are buried there. [...]
Nobody knows how many people have been buried here exactly, although Marzoug estimates that there have been at least 200 in the past six years. In the late 1990s, as more people started to cross the sea, those who drowned were initially buried in a separate corner of the main cemeteries of Zarzis and Ben Guerdane - but as their numbers grew, some locals started protesting. [...]
Over the past few years, a number of Syrians have come to Zarzis to ask about their loved ones, says Marzoug's Red Crescent colleague, Dr Mongi Slim. But under current circumstances, none of the bodies can be identified. Last month, Slim recalled receiving a phone call from a Syrian man who had been rescued in Italy and was looking for his wife and daughter.
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