“On each gravestone we write the person’s name, the place where their body was found, and the forensic number.”

Abdulrazak Ramadan is the director of the morgue of Tripoli Central Hospital.

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— Interview conducted by Mohamed Lagha. Translated from Arabic.

Who contacts you when a body is found? Who do you work with?

We deal with the various law enforcement authorities, usually the police and the Public Prosecution. For example, let’s say a body is coming from Ganzoor public prosecution office or from Al Garaboli, first it goes to the coroner. Then we talk with the Attorney General’s office where they have a committee to bury bodies when there is no family member to contact.

What happens then?

For the bodies we receive here — either the identified bodies or the unidentified ones — after the Attorney General approves burial, we contact the hospital administration and ask them to provide us enough money to make two marble grave markers, so we can know where the body is if there is a request in the future. On each gravestone we write the person’s name — if it is known — as well as the place where their body was found, and the forensic number. On Saturday we are going to bury 36 migrants in Tajura Central Cemetery, and there are other bodies we are going to buried in the Christian Cemetery.

When you go to bury the bodies, are there anyone else taking part? How do you do it?

We do it as the Islamic way, and we put each body alone in it’s own grave. The Attorney General’s committee and a member in the prosecution, the overseer of graves and the public services company go out with us, and with someone from the Criminal Investigation office for taking pictures and documentation.

What do you document exactly? Do you only take photos, or do you take DNA as well?

The coroner takes the DNA, and the Criminal Investigation office take the pictures.