Harrowing photos seen by Al-Monitor show decomposing bodies lying on mountain slopes, almost all of them naked or with only some thin clothes on. Some lie in the fetal position like an unborn baby in a mother’s womb. Worse, many are dismembered. These are the remains of nameless refugees who froze to death in the mountains of Turkey’s eastern province of Van after crossing clandestinely from neighboring Iran, their fates unbeknownst to their loved ones and, until recently, to Turkish authorities themselves.

Local villagers incidentally discovered the bodies after snow in the mountains began to melt in spring, revealing the fate of the most unfortunate among tens of thousands of migrants and asylum seekers who try to cross from Iran to Turkey each year in the hope of reaching Europe. The photos were taken by lawyer Mahmut Kacan, executive board member of the Van Bar Association in charge of migration and asylum issues, whom the villagers alerted about the bodies. 

According to Kacan, who shared the photos with Al-Monitor, refugees are often abandoned by human traffickers in the middle of nowhere, losing their way and perishing alone in snow-covered mountains. Kacan finds it hard to believe but cites a local prosecutor as saying that jewelry, wallets and even clothes and shoes have been stolen from the dead. The mutilation of the bodies, meanwhile, is the work of wild animals.

Kacan said he was aware of at least 29 bodies recovered incidentally in the area in the past three years. “It’s such a gruesome sight. I could hardly eat anything for several days,” he said.