March 25, 2025, from 2-4 p.m.
Slovenian Ethnographic Museum, Ljubljana

Representatives of the Association EPEKA, Soc. Ent., will take part in a round table at the Slovenian Ethnographic Museum: The Afterlife of People Crossing Borders.

The number of deaths at borders or due to borders and the number of anonymous graves of unidentified refugees are on the rise in Slovenia. In the last ten years alone – since 2015, when the mass influx of refugees into Europe began – at least 48 refugees and migrants have died in our country. At the same time, there are more and more families around the world who do not know where their loved ones are, whether they are alive or dead. They are also being sought in Slovenia.

This roundtable will shed light on the circumstances of the deaths of refugees, examine the locations where they died and reflect on the reasons behind them. We will go through the different institutions that escort the deceased to their final resting place and ask: who are the people dying at Slovenian borders? Was their death inevitable? How do local people cope with death? What are the official procedures after death and what happens to the bodies of the deceased? How could relatives find them? Why are the deaths of refugees still so invisible and how could they be publicly commemorated in Slovenia?

Participate:

  • Samo Kavčič (Director of the Municipal Company Črnomelj),
  • Gregor Haring (Institute of Forensic Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ljubljana),
  • Faila Pašić (Honorary Ambassador of the Intercultural Dialogue MAMD),
  • Tit Starc (Infokolpa),
  • Nada Šimunič (resident of Vukovci by the Kolpa River),
  • Maja Murn (Head of Migration and Enquiry Service at the Slovenian Red Cross).

Moderators:

  • Uršula Lipovec Čebron (Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana) and
  • Uroš Škerl Kramberger (Oštro).

The round table is part of the series of events PREHOD (March – May 2025), dedicated to the missing and the dead on the migration route in the Balkans.