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Turkish border province has created the country's largest potter's field to bury refugees

A string of deadly incidents involving migrants has shaken Turkey’s eastern province of Van, which borders Iran and lies on a major route of human trafficking to Europe.
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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. 

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