Coping with a fundamental rights emergency – The situation of people crossing the Greek border in an irregular manner Dealing with the deaths Already in the late 1970s the first dead immigrants, mostly Turkish Kurds, were found in Evros. According to the Coroner of the Thrace region, several dozens of immigrants are found dead each year in or near the Evros river. The vast majority has not been identified. As mine fields have been cleared, hypothermia and drowning are the main causes of deaths. When an immigrant’s body is found the police are immediately notified. All crucial evidence is gathered and the scene is photographed. Subsequently the corpses are transferred to the mortuary of the General University Hospital of Alexandroupoli. There the Coroner of the Thrace region with the help of the police keeps a record of the personal data of the deceased (fingerprints, clothes, personal belongings of all sorts) and takes a DNA sample which is later on sent to the Criminology Laboratory of the General Police Directorate of Attica. If the corpse is identifiable, photographs are also taken and the police try to establish his identity. The law provides for unidentified corpses to remain in the mortuary’s freezers for three months. However, due to the lack of available freezers (only four with a maximum capacity of eight corpses), the coroner requests an order by the Public Prosecutor of Alexandroupoli for immediate burial. The coroner mentioned that without more freezers it is practically impossible to abide by the prescriptions of the law. The bodies are placed in a body bag and handed over to the funeral undertaker. All unidentified deceased immigrants are considered to be Muslims for practical reasons. Each body bag bears the protocol number of the file of the deceased written with a permanent marker pen. This way each body can be linked to the DNA sample and the other personal data gathered during the autopsy. In the past around 20 deceased immigrants were buried in the Muslim cemetery of Alexandroupoli, and others in Didimotiho and Agriani. The few who were identified as Pakistanis were buried by the Pakistani Community of Greece. As the number of deaths increased, the place in existing cemeteries was deemed as not sufficient. Around 2000, the Mufti and the local Muslim commission of the mosques searched for a suitable place to turn into a cemetery for the immigrants. A public site on a hill near the village of Sidiro was selected, where currently all non‐ identified immigrants are buried according to the Muslim ritual. The cemetery was fenced three or four years ago after concerns that wild animals could dig out the corpses. The legal procedures for the establishment of a new cemetery were not followed, although this seems to be a general feature also when other cemeteries are created or old Greek cemeteries 44 expanded. The burial place of Sidiro is thus a de facto cemetery, according to Article 2 (3) of the above‐mentioned Ministerial Decree (A5/1215/1978) and is managed by the Mufti himself. No administrative supervision or control of any kind is currently being exercised over the Mufti concerning the administration of the cemetery. 44 The establishment of new cemeteries and the administration of the existing ones are governed by the Emergency Law 582/1968 and the Ministerial Decision A5/1215/19.4‐10.5.1978 (Journal of Government B’ 424) on the terms for the establishment of cemeteries. According to Art. 2 (1) of this Ministerial Decision, new cemeteries may only be established according to the procedures defined in Art. 1 and 2 of Emergency Law 582/1968. 33